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Indian cricket’s young and fearless opening batsman Abhishek Sharma has rewritten the pages of history with his stormy batting on the international stage. In the third T20 International match against New Zealand played at Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Tuesday, 27th October, Abhishek Sharma took such an aggressive stance against the Kiwi bowlers which surprised the cricket pundits around the world. Chasing a huge target of 199 runs, the Indian opener launched an all-out attack on the opposition camp as soon as he entered the field. Facing only 38 balls, he played an unforgettable century inning of 113 runs, hitting 9 fours and 11 skyscraper sixes. With this stormy century, Abhishek Sharma has left behind Indian cricket legend Virat Kohli in terms of scoring the most centuries in overall men’s T20 cricket (including international, domestic and league cricket).
Virat Kohli has scored a total of 10 centuries so far in his illustrious and long T20 career, which includes centuries in IPL and International T20. Abhishek Sharma has completed the 11th century of his T20 career on the basis of this historic innings of Wellington. Abhishek’s century is not only historic in terms of individual figures, but it also proves what should be the new benchmark of aggression and consistency in modern T20 cricket. Beating a legendary batsman like Virat Kohli in this race of centuries is considered a huge milestone for any young player, because Kohli has been the world’s most reliable and big match winner in this shorter format for decades.
The most surprising and special thing about this record is the huge difference in innings. Abhishek Sharma has completed 11 centuries in his T20 career in just 216 innings. On the contrary, if we look at Virat Kohli’s figures, he had played 413 innings to score 10 T20 centuries. This simply means that Abhishek Sharma has already done the extraordinary feat of scoring more centuries than Virat Kohli by a full 197 innings. Reaching 11 centuries at such a young age and in less innings shows the match-winning ability and explosive style of any batsman.
With this historic achievement, Abhishek Sharma has directly reached the third position in the all-time list of batsmen who have scored most centuries in World Men’s T20 cricket. Now only two international veteran batsmen are left ahead of him in this global table. West Indies’ Universe Boss Chris Gayle is undisputedly at the first position in the world with 22 centuries, while Pakistan’s Babar Azam is at the second position with 13 centuries. Abhishek Sharma has now come at third place with 11 centuries, while he has left behind the world’s greatest hitters and openers like Quinton de Kock (10 centuries), Virat Kohli (10 centuries) and David Warner (10 centuries) in one stroke.
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Chris Gayle (West Indies): 22 centuries
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Babar Azam (Pakistan): 13 centuries
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Abhishek Sharma (India): 11 centuries
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Virat Kohli (India): 10 centuries
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Quinton de Kock (South Africa): 10 centuries
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David Warner (Australia): 10 centuries
If we talk only about T20 International (T20I) matches, then this century played in Wellington was Abhishek Sharma’s fourth century at the international level. With this fourth century, he has officially equaled the record of Indian T20 captain and Mr. 360 degree batsman Suryakumar Yadav. Suryakumar Yadav also has 4 centuries to his name so far in his international T20 career. The national record for scoring the most centuries in T20 International for India is in the name of former captain Rohit Sharma, who has scored 5 centuries in his T20 International career.
Looking at the fast pace at which Abhishek Sharma is scoring centuries in international matches, it is believed that he may very soon surpass Rohit Sharma’s record of five centuries. Rohit Sharma now tops the list of top-5 batsmen who have scored most centuries in International T20 for India with 5 centuries, after which Abhishek Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav are jointly at second place with 4-4 centuries. After these, Sanju Samson comes fourth with 3 centuries and KL Rahul comes fifth with 2 centuries.
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Rohit Sharma: 5 centuries
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Abhishek Sharma: 4 centuries
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Suryakumar Yadav: 4 centuries
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Sanju Samson: 3 centuries
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KL Rahul: 2 centuries
Thanks to this storm of Abhishek Sharma, the Indian team set a new world record for registering the fastest and biggest win while chasing a target of more than 190 runs in the history of T20 International cricket. In this match, the New Zealand team, which came to bat first, scored a strong score of 198 runs at the loss of 3 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. This target of 199 runs was considered challenging on the Wellington pitch, but the Indian team, which came for the chase, made the match completely one-sided on the basis of Abhishek’s destructive start.
Team India scored 199 runs by losing 4 wickets in just 13.2 overs and won the match. The Indian team achieved this huge target with 40 balls remaining. This is the fastest win achieved in the fewest number of balls while chasing more than 190 runs between any two ICC Full Member teams in the history of international T20 cricket. This win has established India’s dominance in the ongoing T20 series in New Zealand and has proved Abhishek Sharma to be the most dangerous match-winner in modern white-ball cricket.