Pakistan’s skipper Babar Azam has reached the landmark of 5,000 runs in ODI cricket and is the fastest ever to do so.
Babar became the fastest player to score 5,000 ODI runs in the ongoing fourth ODI against New Zealand as he did it in 97 innings, breaking former South African opener Hashim Amla’s record — who achieved the feat in 101 innings.
Babar needed just 19 runs to become the fastest player to make 5,000 ODI runs before the start of the match.
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Earlier, New Zealand won the toss and decided to bowl first against Pakistan in the fourth ODI of the five-match series in Karachi on Friday (today).
Pakistan made five changes as compared to New Zealand's three.
Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Haris, Usama Mir and Haris Rauf are included in the starting XI for the fourth ODI.
Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Shadab Khan and Naseem Shah were out of the playing XI.
It must be noted that Pakistan registered their first one-day international series win over New Zealand in 12 years with a hard-fought 26-run victory in the third match in Karachi on Wednesday.
Pakistan, who won the first two matches by five and seven wickets respectively in Rawalpindi, took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
Pakistan´s last ODI series win over New Zealand was in 2011 and since then they had lost six of the seven series, with one drawn.
Lineups:
New Zealand XI: Will Young, Tom Blundell (wk), Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (c), Mark Chapman, James Neesham, Cole McConchie, Ish Sodhi, Matt Henry, Ben Lister, Blair Tickner
Pakistan XI: Shan Masood, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Haris, Agha Salman, Usama Mir, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Wasim, Haris Rauf
- Babar Azam