Abhishek Sharma etched his name into the history books as he completed 100 T20I sixes during the first match against England at the Riverside Ground, Chester-Le-Street on Wednesday, July 1. Abhishek, who was dismissed for a golden duck in the second T20I of the series, raced quickly off the blocks during the series opener against England and registered a massive record.
The Southpaw completed 100 sixes in T20I cricket and became the fastest player from full member nations to achieve the feat, shattering the previous record held by Evin Lewis. Abhishek, who lost his World No.1 T20I spot on Wednesday, took 785 balls to get to the milestone, just four balls fewer than Evin Lewis needed to smash a century of maximums.
Fewest balls to reach 100 sixes in T20I (FM teams):
785 – Abhishek Sharma
789 – Evin Lewis
871 – Finn Allen
931 – Tim David
963 – Colin Munro
1007 – Suryakumar Yadav
Abhishek joins elite list of Indians
Meanwhile, Abhishek has also become just the fifth Indian batter to smash 100 sixes in the shortest international format. He joins the list headed by T20 World Cup 2024-winning captain Rohit Sharma (205) with Suryakumar Yadav (179), Hardik Pandya (126) and Virat Kohli (124) being the other four Indians to have got there.
India opt to bat against England
India won the toss and opted to bat first against England as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi missed out on his debut yet again. “We are going with bat first. Ireland is history. Itโs a new series, five games, everything to play for. Certainly, this is a great opportunity for us. This is my first, second actually, second series as a captain. So, pretty much excited,” Shreyas said at the toss.ย
India have made two changes to the team that lost the second T20I to Ireland. Ravi Bishnoi makes his long-awaited return as Chakravarthy is also back. Prince Yadav and Suryansh Shedge have missed out.
England (Playing XI): Philip Salt, Jos Buttler(w), Harry Brook(c), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Saqib Mahmood, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood
India (Playing XI): Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy
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