Pakistan’s all-format captain, Babar Azam, and wicket-keeper batter, Mohammad Rizwan, have already broken multiple partnership records over the past year and they continued their record-breaking form in Pakistan’s match against Namibia in the ongoing 2021 T20 World Cup.
Babar and Rizwan have already scored two century stands in this edition of the T20 World Cup. They scored 152 runs in Pakistan’s first match against arch-rivals India and followed it up with another century stand against Namibia. Babar and Rizwan both scored exquisite half-centuries as Pakistan won their fourth consecutive match in the tournament and became the first team to officially qualify for the semi-finals of the tournament.
The duo put on an opening stand of 113 runs in the match against Namibia. This was their fifth century partnership in T20I cricket, which is a world record. They surpassed the record of Indian pair, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan and New Zealand pair, Kane Williamson and Martin Guptill, who have put on a century partnership on four occasions.
The Pakistani pair also became the first batting partners to score more than 1,000 partnership runs in a calendar year. Previously, Ireland’s Paul Stirling and Kevin O’Brien held the record for most runs as a pair in a calendar year as they scored 756 runs in 20 innings in 2019.
Babar and Rizwan have already scored 1,041 runs in 17 innings in the calendar year. Overall, the duo has put together 1,134 runs while batting together.
