Happy birthday Hashim Amla: Here're lesser known facts about him
Hashim Amla was born today, 35 years ago, in an orthodox South African Muslim family. In the last decade, he has established himself as one of the finest batsmen the sport has seen till date. Amla is in a neck-to-neck battle with Kohli when it comes to cricket records. On his birthday, here are some of the lesser-known facts about the bearded genius.
ICC pays tribute to Hashim Amla
Amla is a run-churning machine
Hashim Amla is on the fifth spot in the list of the most number of ODI hundreds scored. He has 26 ODI tons to his name and is only behind Tendulkar, Kohli, Ponting and Jayasuriya. The right-handed South African has also slammed 54 hundreds across the 3 formats of cricket. Among the current players, he is only behind Kohli, who has 56 career hundreds.
This man has earned everybody's respect
Amla is a devout Muslim. Due to his religious beliefs, he refused to endorse the South African cricket team's sponsor Castle Lager, which manufactures alcohol. Cricket South Africa gave him a special waiver to not sport the beer brand's logo on his jersey.
First to reach several landmarks
Amla is the first South African to score a triple hundred in Tests; he scored 311* against England in 2012. He also became the first non-white permanent Test skipper of South African cricket team in 2014. Amla is the fastest player to score 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 and 7000 ODI runs.
Just like Kohli, scoring tons is Amla's thing
Amla is the joint fastest batsman, along with Indian skipper Virat Kohli, to reach 50 international hundreds. He achieved the feat in just 348 innings. Amla is the first South African batsman to score 25 centuries in ODIs. Finally, he is the fourth cricketer to score 25 centuries in both Tests and ODIs after Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, and Kumar Sangakkara.
