First PSL century: Babar Azam's dream comes true

Peshawar Zalmi captain Babar Azam's dream of scoring a Pakistan Super League (PSL) came true Wednesday when he scored his first century in the tournament.

Babar, who is also the skipper of the national side, managed to score 115 runs at a strike rate of 171.66 during a match against Quetta Gladiators at the Pindi Cricket Stadium — silencing his critics. His knock consisted of 15 fours and three maximums.

Ahead of the start of this year's PSL, Babar told a private television channel that it is his aim to score a century in the tournament as "I have still not scored one yet".

"I have to make my team win in [PSL]. And also, in the upcoming World Cup, I want to be part of the winning side," the skipper said.

Though this was his first PSL century, the collective number of his hundred has jumped to eight — the most by any Pakistani, the most by any Asian, and jointly the second most in the world.

Babar has previously scored two centuries in T20Is for Pakistan, two in T20 Blast in England for Somerset, two for Central Punjab in National T20 and another one for Pakistan in an official T20 match against Leicestershire in 2019.

Babar has joined David Waner, Aaron Finch and Michael Klinger at the second spot in the list of players with the most T20 hundreds. They all have eight T20 centuries to their credit.

The only player to score more centuries than the is Chris Gayle who has scored 22 centuries in T20 cricket.