4 Lesser known batting records held by Indians in Twenty20 cricket

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has witnessed some of the brilliant batting performances which created various records but most of them belong to the overseas players. IPL isn’t only the T20 competition in India as it hosts the domestic T20 tournament named after Syed Mushtaq Ali.

Across both the tournaments, the batters from India created various records. Some of those feats couldn’t be matched by any other players across the world and few of them couldn’t be broken despite levelling.

Here we look at four records created by batsmen from India in Twenty20 cricket:

4. Most runs, fifties and centuries in a tournament

2016 was a dream year with the bat for Virat Kohli where he scored loads of runs including the 973 runs in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Until then, no player had even scored 800 runs in a Twenty20 series/tournament. Kohli smashed four hundreds during the tournament having not scored a T20 ton till then.

Those four centuries are the most by any player in a T20 series/tournament till date. Virat thus surpassed Michael Klinger’s three centuries during the 2015 T20 Blast from only 12 innings. Through the tournament, Virat Kohli also struck seven fifties which meant he crossed the 50-run mark in 11 out of 16 innings.

The impact of four tons in the 2016 IPL helped Kohli to equal the record for most T20 centuries in a calendar year. The only player other than Virat to score four 100s in a year in Twenty20s is Chris Gayle in 2011. Kohli recorded 18 scores of 50+ runs across the 29 T20 innings in 2019 which help him set a new record most 50+ T20 scores in a year.

3. Five consecutive fifty-plus scores

Virender Sehwag was known for his exploits in Test cricket but used to lack when it comes to consistency in any format. He is known for settling down to quick-fire 30s and 40s in the limited-overs. However, in 2012, a different Sehwag was on display. Despite his struggles in the overseas Test tours, Sehwag was on top form during the Indian Premier League (IPL) while leading the Delhi Daredevils. The Delhi franchise finished at the bottom in 2011 but started off strongly in the 2012 edition.

Daredevils won four of their first five matches and were on a 3-match winning streak when they hosted Pune Warriors. Delhi lost the game by 20 runs despite a 32-ball 57 from skipper Sehwag. He scored an unbeaten 87 from 48 balls in the away fixture against Pune to get his team back to winning way. The opening batsman powered his team to a big win against Mumbai Indians at home as he smashed 73 from only 39 deliveries.

The Daredevils then faced Rajasthan Royals in back to back matches where Sehwag came up with scores of 63 and 73 which came in winning side. Thus, Delhi recorded their joint-longest winning streak while Sehwag recorded five successive fifties. Thus, he became the first player in Twenty20 history to smash 50+ scores in five consecutive innings. Four players achieved this feat after Sehwag but none of them is from India.

2. Most runs as a wicketkeeper in a tournament

The 2018 Indian Premier League (IPL) can be considered as a breakthrough tournament for Rishabh Pant. From there, Pant began to get into the national team more often and eventually made his World Cup debut in 2019. Rishabh amassed 684 runs through the season with help of a career best knock of 128* and five fifties. He stood as the leading run-getter of the season until the group stage but was eventually pushed to No.2 by Kane Williamson with 735 runs by end of the playoff stage.

Williamson, the then SRH skipper, scored 74 runs across three playoff matches which helped the New Zealander to gain a 51-run edge over the youngster from India. The 684 runs by Rishabh Pant during the 2018 IPL stand as the most runs scored in a Twenty20 series/tournament as a wicketkeeper. Pant, thus broke the record held by Robin Uthappa who scored 660 runs across 15 innings during Kolkata Knight Riders’ victorious 2014 IPL edition.

During the 2018 IPL, KL Rahul also kept the wickets in all 14 league matches for the Kings XI Punjab and aggregated 659 runs. Except for Uthappa, Rahul and Pant, no player in T20 history has scored 600+ runs as a keeper in a T20 series/tournament. The next most number of runs scored by a keeper in a T20 tournament/series is 592 runs by Matthew Wade during the 2018-19 BBL across 15 innings. Quinton de Kock stands as the only keeper with 500+ runs in two T20 tournaments – Ram Slam 2012-13 and IPL 2019.

1. Century while chasing on debut

Scoring a century on debut match is something every batter dreams which hasn’t happen quite often. When it comes to T20Is and T20s, this feat is a very rare occurrence. As many as three players scored a hundred on their T20I debut; all coming in the space of three months but after 850+ matches in the format. Nearly 9000 T20 matches have taken place but only seven of them witnessed a player scoring a century on his debut match.

The rarest of occurrence in the Twenty20 cricket thus far has been a century while chasing in the debut match. Akshath Reddy recorded this feat while playing in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2009-10. During the quarter-final match of the tournament, Akshath opened the batting for Hyderabad team when they were chasing 182 to win against Mumbai. The right-handed batsman smashed an unbeaten 105 from 54 deliveries with 10 fours and six maximums as Hyderabad chased down the target with an over to spare.

Akshath Reddy was only 19 years and 30 days old when he achieved this feat which made him the then youngest player in the history of SMA T20 tournament. A couple of years later, Vijay Zol broke the record by scoring a ton at the age of 18 only. In fact, Akshath was only the 2nd player to score a hundred on T20 debut back in 2010. Moin Khan was the first player to smash a ton on Twenty20 debut as he scored 112 for Karachi Dolphins in 2005 against Lahore Lions.