Pakistan’s Babar Azam entered his name in the history books on Sunday (October 12) by becoming the first cricketer from Asia to score 3000 runs in the World Test Championship (WTC). The right-handed batter from Lahore, who was not picked for the Asia Cup 2025 last month, needed two runs in the ongoing first Pakistan-South Africa Test at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore to join the 3000-run club, and he achieved the objective by hitting a four on the fourth ball of the 49th over bowled by Senuran Muthusamy.
Before Babar, four Australians – Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head and Usman Khawaja – and three Englishmen – Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Zak Crawley – have managed to score 3000 runs in the WTC.
Most runs in World Test Championship
| PLAYER | TEAM | MATCHES | RUNS |
| Joe Root | England | 69 | 6080 |
| Steve Smith | Australia | 55 | 4278 |
| Marnus Labuschagne | Australia | 53 | 4225 |
| Ben Stokes | England | 57 | 3616 |
| Travis Head | Australia | 52 | 3300 |
| Usman Khawaja | Australia | 43 | 3288 |
| Zak Crawley | England | 52 | 3041 |
| Babar Azam | Pakistan | 37* | 3003* |
| Ollie Pope | England | 51 | 2868 |
| Shubman Gill | India | 39* | 2826 |
In the list
of Asian batters with the most runs in the WTC, Babar is followed by India’s Test captain Shubman Gill, who has scored 2826 runs in 39 matches. Rishabh Pant and Rohit Sharma are third and fourth in the list with 2731 and 2716 runs, respectively.
Most runs in WTC (Asian batters)
| PLAYER | TEAM | MATCHES | RUNS |
| Babar Azam | Pakistan | 37* | 3003* |
| Shubman Gill | India | 39* | 2826 |
| Rishabh Pant | India | 38 | 2731 |
| Rohit Sharma | India | 40 | 2716 |
| Dimuth Karunaratne | Sri Lanka | 35 | 2642 |
| Virat Kohli | India | 46 | 2617 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | Sri Lanka | 35 | 2509 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | India | 46 | 2505 |
| Yashasvi Jaiswal | India | 26 | 2420 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | Sri Lanka | 32 | 2340 |
Among Pakistani batters, apart from Babar, only Mohammad Rizwan has managed to score more than 2000 runs in the WTC. The wicketkeeper-batter has amassed a total of 2194 runs in 37 matches, whereas Test captain Shan Masood, who got out for 76 runs from 147 balls on Sunday, has 1663 runs to his credit in 28 WTC matches.
Most runs for Pakistan in WTC
| PLAYER | MATCHES | RUNS |
| Babar Azam | 37 | 3003* |
| Mohammad Rizwan | 37 | 2194 |
| Shan Masood | 28 | 1663 |
| Saud Shakeel | 20 | 1658 |
| Abdullah Shafique | 23 | 1506 |
Babar walked out to bat at No. 4 for Pakistan in the second session on Sunday after Prenelan Subrayen picked up Masood’s wicket. The left-handed batter scored 76 runs with the help of nine fours and one six. He added 161 runs for the second wicket with Imam-ul-Haq, who was batting on 88 at the end of 55 overs.
