Babar Azam becomes fastest cricketer to slam 14 ODI centuries; Pakistan captain surpasses Amla, Warner, Kohli

Birmingham, July 13: Pakistan captain and star batsman Babar Azam on Tuesday (July 13) set aside the disappointments of the first two games as the stylish batsman slammed a classical century against England in the third ODI here at Edgbaston.

England's acting captain Ben Stokes won the toss and invited Azam and his band to bat first in the final one-dayer. Putting aside the disappointments of the opening two games which also cost his team the series, Babar showed the world why he's the number one ranked ODI batsman and why he's rated so heavily in the cricketing fraternity.

After losing opener Fakhar Zaman cheaply in the fifth over, Azam walked into the middle and started batting cautiously. The right-handed batsman took 15 deliveries to get off the mark but constructed his innings brilliantly.

Babar Azam now first Pakistan captain to score a 150 in ODIs. #EngvPak

— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad) July 13, 2021

Azam first revived Pakistan's innings along with opener Imam-ul-Haq (56) and later went on notching up his ODI career's 14th century and in the process, he also became the fastest batsman to achieve the milestone. The roar after getting to his century showed how much that century meant to Babar - whose bat was facing a lot of backlash for not scoring the first two games.

Babar smashed a boundary off English pacer Saqib Mahmood at the point region to complete his ton in 104 deliveries. It was a typical Babar Azam innings as the Pakistan skipper kept improving his strike rate as the time progressed.

Babar Azam today:

First 50 runs off 72 balls
Second 50 runs off 32 balls
Third 50 runs off 30 balls#ENGvPAK #Cricket

— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) July 13, 2021

The right-handed batsman switched gears after getting to the three-figure mark and punished England bowlers by hitting boundaries and sixes at will. He went on scoring 150 off just 134 deliveries.

En route his 14th century, Babar leapfrogged greats like Meg Lanning, Hashim Amla, David Warner and Virat Kohli to become the fastest as he took just 81 innings to get to the milestone.

Here are the batsmen, fastest to 14 ODI centuries (by number of innings):

81 (innings) - Babar Azam - Pakistan
82 (innings) - Meg Lanning - Australia women
84 - Hashim Amla - South Africa
98 - David Warner - Australia
103 - Virat Kohli - Virat Kohli