RAWALPINDI: Pakistan’s flamboyant and out-of-favour opening batsman Ahmad Shahzad doubled his joy on Thursday by reaching the milestone of 5,000 runs in T20 cricket, the second Pakistan player to achieve the feat. Shahzad reached this milestone with an innings of 27 against Rawalpindi for Lahore Blues on Thursday, also his 26th birthday. The 26-year-old batsman said that to be the quickest Pakistani to reach 5,000 runs gave him immense pleasure and hunger to score more. He termed the achievement as special and close to his heart. “Being the quickest Pakistan player to reach 5000 T20 runs is very close to my heart and it can only pump me to go further and work harder on my batting and make further records,” the flamboyant batsman added. Before Shahzad, Shoaib Malik was the first Pakistan player to reach the milestone of 5,000 T20 runs. Malik is currently Pakistan’s top T20 run scorer with 7,295 runs to his credit in the shortest format of professional cricket. Shahzad, reached the milestone in the 181st innings of his career, surpassing Malik’s record of 182 innings to become the quickest from Pakistan to complete 5,000 T20 runs. Published in Daily Times, November 24th 2017.