Battle of the Titans: Babar Azam surpasses Virat Kohli, sets sights on Rohit Sharma's record in Pakistan vs Australia clash

After facing disappointing results in the first two T20I matches of the series against Australia, Babar Azam, the former Pakistan captain, came back strong with an impressive performance on Monday at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart during the third and final match of the contest. He scored 41 runs off 28 balls, despite ending up on the losing side. This innings helped him surpass Virat Kohli and move closer to Rohit Sharma's world record in a prestigious T20I list.

Babar managed identical scores of just three runs in the opening two matches against Australia in the T20I series. However, he bounced back in the third back as he laced four boundaries in his 28-ball 41, before being dismissed by Adam Zampa in the 13th over the innings.

En route to the knock, Babar went past former India captain Kohli in the list of most runs scored by a batter in T20I history, taking the second spot with 4192 runs, which came in 119 innings. Kohli slipped to third spot with 4188 runs in 125 appearances, while Babar now stands just 40 runs away from overtaking top-ranked Rohit, who scored 4231 runs in 159 T20I matches.

Babar was the only standout batter for Pakistan, who faced a horror collapse, before being folded for 117 runs in 18.1 overs. Aaron Hardie picked three wickets for 21 runs, while Spencer Johnson and Zampa snared two each.

In response, Marcus Stoinis smashed an unbeaten 61 off 27 balls as Australia steamrollered Pakistan by seven wickets in the third T20I, thus completing a 3-0 series sweep.

Australia lost both their openers, Matthew Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk, inside four overs but Stoinis counter-attacked in spectacular fashion, smacking five sixes and as many fours in his blistering knock as Australia chased down the target with 8.4 overs to spare. 22 of Stoinis' runs came in a Haris Rauf over, where he clobbered two sixes and two fours.

Pakistan won the preceding one-day series 2-1.