Abhishek Sharma played a blazing knock in the third T20I vs West Indies. He scored 69 runs off 30 balls, and during his stay in the middle, he became the fastest batter to 2000 T20I runs. Abhishek broke Suryakumar Yadav’s record, who topped the list before this.
India were chased down even after posting a total of 249 runs in the second match against West Indies. Abhishek Sharma, who has already made a name for himself with his ultra-aggressive approach in the powerplay, came out all guns blazing in the third T20I of the series, with an intention of posting something even bigger.
India lost Sanju Samson early, but that did not faze Abhishek Sharma. He batted in his trademark style and reached his fifty off just 18 deliveries. He injected tremendous momentum into the Indian innings, and as long as he was out there in the middle, it looked like the hosts would post a total around what they achieved in the second match. Sharma was dismissed for 69 off 30 balls with India on 124 runs and one delivery still remaining in the 10th over.
Abhishek Sharma surpasses Suryakumar Yadav’s T20I record
Sharma surpassed India’s former captain, Suryakumar Yadav, to become the fastest to 2,000 T20I runs in terms of deliveries faced. Abhishek reached the landmark off just 1,024 balls, while Surya achieved it in 1,164 deliveries. Abhishek bettered the record by 140 balls.
This list contains some of the most destructive batters. Aaron Finch is the third-fastest to have reached the 2,000-run mark, achieving it off 1,283 deliveries, followed by Glenn Maxwell, who did it in 1,304 deliveries. The previous marks were achieved at an already extraordinary pace by T20 standards; however, Abhishek Sharma has pushed the boundaries of positive cricket even further.
Although one could argue that, barring Finch, the other names on the list are middle-order batters who did not always have the advantage of batting during fielding restrictions. But time and again, Abhishek has shown that the field setting does not particularly influence his batting style.
Abhishek Sharma became the sixth Indian to score 2,000 runs in T20Is. The other five Indian batters on the list are Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul. However, Sharma has scored these runs at a strike rate of more than 195 and an average above 32, combining remarkable consistency with relentless power-hitting. India will hope that this becomes one of the many milestones the young Indian batter achieves in his career.
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Coming back to the third T20I between India and West Indies, the visitors staged a brilliant comeback in the middle overs. After India scored 87 runs in the first six overs for the loss of a single wicket, the visitors picked up five wickets in the next ten, allowing the hosts to score only 87 more. This considerably curtailed India’s scoring rate. The total, which at one stage looked set to surpass the 250 mark, was eventually restricted to 224 at the end of their 20 overs.