Babar Azam enters record books, achieves major WTC feat against England

Pakistan's Babar Azam (AP photo)Babar Azam reached a significant milestone during Pakistan's fightback against England at Edgbaston on Friday, becoming only the fourth batter to score 2,000 runs as captain in the World Test Championship.The Pakistan batter reached the landmark in the third innings of the third Test against England, joining an exclusive list headed by England's Joe Root, who is also featuring in the match. Ben Stokes and Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne are the other two batters to have crossed the mark.Babar got there in 41 innings, making him the third-fastest batter to reach 2,000 WTC runs as captain. Root and Karunaratne share the record for reaching the milestone fastest, having done so in 40 innings. Stokes took 61 innings to achieve the feat.Most runs as captain in WTCPlayerCountryInningsRunsHighest ScoreBatting AverageCenturiesFiftiesJoe RootEngland66306022848.57832Ben StokesEngland71218215532.56332Dimuth KarunaratneSri Lanka45216024449.09622Babar AzamPakistan41201519653.02424Kraigg BrathwaiteWest Indies64199416032.68324Virat KohliIndia371349254*38.54216Tom LathamNew Zealand37133825236.1659Rohit SharmaIndia42125413130.58415Dhananjaya de SilvaSri Lanka31113012037.66315Najmul Hossain ShantoBangladesh30113014838.96412Babar's contribution to the milestone came with a substantial 76 off 103 balls. His innings, which contained 11 boundaries and a six against Jofra Archer, took his WTC tally as captain to 2,015 runs.It was also Babar's first half-century of the three-Test series. He had missed the opening Test because of injury before returning to the Pakistan side.