Pakistan’s left-handed middle-order batter Saud Shakeel broke India’s Vinod Kambli’s long-standing record in the first innings of the opening Test against Bangladesh here at Pindi Cricket Stadium on Thursday.
The southpaw achieved the feat of accumulating the most number of runs by an Asian batter after 20 Test innings, going past India’s Kambli, who had 1,056 runs after as many innings.
Saud amassed the milestone when he breached the 90-run barrier amid his marathon knock against Bangladesh. Prior to this innings, he had 967 runs to his name in 19 outings.
Besides Saud Shakeel and Vinod Kambli, the only other batters to accumulate more than one thousand runs after 20 Test innings are India’s Mayank Agarwal and Cheteshwar Pujara and Pakistan’s Saeed Ahmed.
Overall, Saud Shakeel is 17th on the list of batters with the most Test runs after 20 innings, led by one of the greats to ever play the game, Don Bradman.
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The current part of the all-time elusive list are England’s Harry Brook with 1,181 runs and Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne, who scored 1,166.
Yesterday, Saud Shakeel also became the joint-fastest Pakistan batter to amass 1000 runs in Test cricket.
The 28-year-old joined Saeed Ahmed on the elusive list as both batters took 20 innings to achieve the milestone.
Sadiq Mohammad conceded 22 innings while legendary batter Javed Miandad took 23.
Whereas, Taufeeq Umar, Abdullah Shafique and Abid Ali, all took 24 innings to complete 1000 runs in Test cricket.
Fastest to 1000 Test Runs for Pakistan
Saud Shakeel: 20 Innings
Saeed Ahmed: 20 Innings
Sadiq Mohammad: 22 Innings
Javed Miandad: 23 Innings
Abid Ali: 24 Innings
Taufeeq Umar: 24 Innings
Abdullah Shafique: 24 Innings
Saud Shakeel achieved the milestone on the opening day of the first home Test against Bangladesh when he pulled Nahid Rana’s short-pitched delivery around leg for a single in the 25th over.
He needed just 33 runs as he had 967 runs in 19 innings at a heft average of 60.43, featuring two centuries and six half-centuries.
READ: Mohammad Rizwan joins elusive list with 150 against Bangladesh