PAK vs NZ: Babar Azam breaks Ricky Ponting’s 16-year-old record in Karachi

Babar Azam continued his red-hot form in red-ball cricket as he struck a sensational Test century against New Zealand in the first inning of the opening Test at National Stadium in Karachi.

With this, Babar Azam smashed the record of former Australian captain Ricky Ponting for most fifty-plus scores as captain, across all formats, in a calendar year. This was Babar’s 25th 50+ score while Ricky Ponting scored 24 50+ scores in 2005.

The stylish right-handed batter also went past former England Test captain Joe Root, who has scored 1098 runs from 15 matches at an average of 45.75, to become the batter with the most Test runs in the year.

Most Test Runs in 2022

Rank	Player	Runs
1	Babar Azam	1128*
2	Joe Root	1098
3	Usman Khawaja	1080
4	Jonny Bairstow	1061
5	Marnus Labuschagne	948

Owing to his currently unbeaten knock today, Babar broke the 16-year-old record for most runs scored by a Pakistan batter in a season held by Mohammad Yousuf in the first innings of the opening Test against New Zealand.

Yousuf had scored 2435 runs in 2006 while Babar Azam now has scored more than 2500 runs across formats in 2022. Earlier this month, the Lahore-born cricketer achieved his career-best Test ranking, rising to second place in the latest ICC batting rankings.