Abhishek Sharma Eyes Milestone in T20I Run Rankings Against New Zealand
Abhishek Sharma's T20I Journey
In Auckland, New Zealand, Indian opener Abhishek Sharma is on the verge of a significant achievement, needing just 49 runs to surpass KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya, positioning himself as the fourth-highest run-scorer for India in T20 internationals.
Set to play in the fourth T20I against New Zealand, Abhishek aims to further cement his legacy as one of India's T20I legends. He recently made headlines by scoring an impressive 113 runs off 38 balls in the third T20I while chasing a target of 199, marking a record for the most T20 centuries by an Indian, with a total of 11, overtaking the iconic Virat Kohli.
With 2,240 runs in 70 T20Is, Abhishek has achieved this in 69 innings, boasting an average of 33.43 and a remarkable strike rate of 196.83, including four centuries and 14 fifties, with a personal best of 135. Just over two years post his T20I debut, he stands as India's sixth-highest run-scorer.
If he manages to score 26 more runs, he will surpass KL Rahul, who has 2,265 runs from 72 matches, and with 49 runs, he will move ahead of Hardik Pandya's tally of 2,288 runs from 138 matches.
The top three Indian T20I run-scorers are Rohit Sharma (4,231 runs in 159 matches), Virat Kohli (4,188 runs in 125 matches), and Suryakumar Yadav (3,272 runs in 113 matches). Abhishek's ascent to the fourth position would reflect a remarkable lineage of Indian batting talent in T20Is, with Rohit and Virat being the pioneers, followed by Suryakumar, known for his innovative batting style that has elevated India's T20I game since 2020.
Abhishek, a product of Suryakumar's era, has made a name for himself as an aggressive batsman, hitting 158 sixes in his T20I career, with a strike rate nearing 200.
In 2023 alone, he has accumulated 1,125 runs in 37 T20Is, averaging 31.25 with a strike rate of 206.42, including two centuries and eight fifties, with a top score of 113. He is just 40 runs shy of breaking Suryakumar's record for the most T20I runs in a calendar year by an Indian, which stands at 1,164 runs set in 2022.