Asia Cup 2025: United Arab Emirates vs Oman - Muhammad Waseem beats Jos Buttler for world record; tops a list that also features Rohit Sharma and David Warner

It's not often that some of the big records in cricket are achieved by players from the Associate teams. However, the International Cricket Council's (ICC) decision to popularise the sport through the shortest format has also played its part to keep the Associate teams in the mix more frequently. Nevertheless, United Arab Emirates's veteran batter Muhammad Waseem needs no filters to prove his might as a T20I batter. His powerhitting ability has always been well-documented but his stint for MI Emirates in the ILT20 showed that he can match up against the most potent of bowlers worldwide.

For UAE, he remains their most destructive batter and the opener proved it once more during the Asia Cup encounter against Oman in Abu Dhabi on Monday (September 15). Waseem's 54-ball 69 was the pivot of the innings while fellow opener Alishan Sharafu also stroked a classy 38-ball 51. Their opening stand of 88 set UAE on course for their strong total of 172/5, a seemingly above-par total at this venue. Waseem also got to a laudable milestone during his innings before perishing in the final over against Hassnain Shah

Sharafu was the aggressor in the opening stand but Waseem as always paced himself well to almost bat right through the innings. When the latter got to 59, he got to the milestone of 3000 runs in T20I cricket. Waseem did it off 1947 deliveries, the fastest-ever to do so, comfortably eclipsing England's Jos Buttler who had done it off 2068 deliveries. Australian duo of Aaron Finch (2077), David Warner (2113) and India's former captain Rohit Sharma (2149) are the others in the top-5 when it comes to the fastest to 3000 T20I runs. That he has topped a list featuring such superstars, that too by a big margin, is testimony to Waseem's impact as a batter in the shortest format.

There is a bigger record that Waseem is in sight of. After clubbing three sixes against Oman, he now has 182 sixes in T20Is, only 23 behind Rohit Sharma's all-time record (205) for most sixes in the format. Given the frequency of T20Is at the moment, UAE's talisman is in with a realistic shout of not just breaking the record but also setting up a bigger benchmark. Waseem's 182 sixes off 84 innings also gives him the best sixes-hit-per-innings average among all top batters in the list.

The 2022-24 phase has been the most lethal phase in Waseem's career, tallying 152 sixes during this period from just 65 innings! The counter-argument is that UAE seldom plays full-member nations and a whopping majority of their T20I cricket is against fellow Associate teams but that isn't Waseem's fault. He can only play what is in front of him and as mentioned above, the ILT20 has shown enough to suggest that he can handle the big boys too.