Pakistan’s opening pair Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan have been declared as the world’s best opening pair as numbers in T20I cricket put by the duo are extraordinary, and they broke yet another record in the course of setting up victory over New Zealand on Wednesday.
Pakistan’s opening batters produced a superb stand to help their side to victory over New Zealand in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup semi-final on Wednesday.
The report said although the style and scoring rates of Babar and Rizwan have seen them come in for occasional criticism, as has their form throughout the tournament’s group stage, with the captain particularly out of sorts, yet, the pair’s numbers in T20I cricket are extraordinary, and they broke yet another record in the course of setting up victory over New Zealand.
More than any other opening pair in the tournament’s history, the Pakistan openers’ 105-run stand marked their third-century partnership in a Men’s T20I World Cup.
Their eighth-century partnership in all T20Is was also an all-time high, easily surpassing the next-highest team of India’s KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, who had five.
The report says Babar and Rizwan are also the highest-scoring partnership in Men’s T20I history by some distance, combining to put 2509 runs on the board when together at the crease for Pakistan in the format 621 more than any other pair.
And their average as a pairing is now 51.20. For context, only three duos who have passed 1000 partnership runs have an average of over 40, with no others in excess of 50.
