Indian captain Rohit Sharma, on Friday, leapfrogged New Zealand batter Martin Guptill to acquire a first place in the list of top run-getters in T20 Internationals (T20Is).
Rohit accomplished the landmark in the ongoing first T20I against West Indies at Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad. The Nagpur- born cricketer shined with the willow, smashing a brilliant 64 from 44 deliveries with the help of nine boundaries, including a couple of sixes.
Notably, earlier this week, Guptill had surpassed Rohit to become the leading run-scorer in the shortest format. The Black Caps batter was 20 runs ahead of Rohit before the Indian skipped reclaimed the numero uno spot.
Amongst the other leaders on the charts, Guptill is followed by former India captain Virat Kohli (3,308), Ireland’s star Paul Stirling (2,894), and Australian captain Aaron Finch with 2,855 runs.
Most runs in T20 Internationals:
- 3443 – Rohit Sharma
- 3399 – Martin Guptill
- 3308 – Virat Kohi
- 2894 – Paul Stirling
- 2855 – Aaron Finch
Further, Rohit also scripted another record to his name after smashing his 31st 50+ score in T20I cricket. With that, the 35-year-old went past Kohli for most 50+ scores in the shortest format.
Most 50+ scores in T20Is:
- 31 – Rohit Sharma
- 30 – Virat Kohli
- 27 – Babar Azam
- 23 – David Warner
- 22 – Martin Guptill
Coming back to the ongoing contest between West Indies and India, the visitors posted a massive total of 190/6 on the board. Apart from Rohit, who led the unit with his scintillating batting, Dinesh Karthik provided late fireworks, courtesy of his sensational 19-ball 41 that propelled India to a humungous total.
The attacking display by India cemented the claims of Rohit, who, ahead of the game, had said that India have adopted a fearless approach in the shortest format. He also mentioned that India were not playing ‘conservative’ during last year’s T20 World Cup in the UAE.
“We didn’t get the result from the last World Cup, but that doesn’t mean we played bad cricket all these years, and I don’t agree we were playing conservative cricket. If you lose one or two matches in the World Cup, it feels like we were doing this and that, we were not taking our chances. It’s not like that. If you look at the overall games that we have played leading into the World Cup, we won 80 per cent of our games,” Rohit had said during the pre-match presser.