Asia Cup 2023

Top 5 highest scorers in Asia Cup

The Asia Cup returns to Pakistan after 15 long years. And it can be said it has returned with a bang. A thumping century from Babar Azam against Nepal in the very first match has set the tone high. The top-ranked ODI batter completed his record 19th ODI century with this performance.

There have been many instances where batters have produced significant individual performances in the Asia Cup history. Once they got over the 100-run mark, they always intended to make it big. Eventually, they have been successful on many occasions. Most importantly, some of them came at a tricky situation for the team and made it more significant.

Let’s take a look back at the top 5 highest scores in Asia Cup history. Among the top 5, the three highest scores came from the bat of a Pakistani batter. Over the years, they have delivered strong individual performances. The other two instances belong to Mushfiqur Rahim from Bangladesh and Virat Kohli from India.

5. Shoaib Malik

Former Pakistani middle order batter Shoaib Malik’s 143 runs score against India stands at fifth position even after 19 years. He has a stellar record in Asia Cup averaging 66, way higher than his career average. In this particular match against India, young Shoaib came to bat one down.

The alrounder started collecting boundaries against Irfan, and Balaji to get his eyes settled in. He looked always busy at the crease and troubled Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh significantly. He struck the century in 95 balls with fourteen fours and capitalised on batting powerplay to maximize those runs.

Eventually, he got out to Sachin Tendulkar at the score of 143 off 127 balls. Later in the second half of the game, he took revenge by getting Sachin out of his bowling. With his exemplary all-round performance, Pakistan clinched a comfortable victory over India.