KARACHI: Pakistan’s veteran all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez overtook India’s K. L. Rahul to become the highest run-scorer in Twenty20 internationals in the calendar year 2020.
Hafeez, who scored a quick 29-ball 41 in Pakistan’s win in the third T20I against New Zealand on Tuesday, bagged 415 runs in the outgoing year, the most by any player.
The former captain scored 415 runs in 8 innings in 2020, followed by India’s K. L. Rahul (404 runs in 10 innings) and England’s Dawid Malan (397 runs in 10 innings). He is the first Pakistani since 2013 to finish the year as a leading T20I scorer.
Back then, Ahmed Shahzad had scored 347 runs to lead the charts. In 2017, Babar Azam came close but West Indies player Evin Lewis was ahead with five more runs.
Overall, Hafeez has amassed 1,005 runs across all forms of T20 cricket including leagues and international cricket and is among five batsmen to score over 1,000 T20 runs this year.
The 40-year-old former skipper’s batting average stood above 83 – second best in the year by any batsmen playing at least five innings. Hafeez smashed four half-centuries. No player has scored more than four fifties in the year.
With 2323 international T20 runs, Mohammad Hafeez is just 12 runs behind Shoaib Malik who is Pakistan’s all-time leading T20I runs scorers.
