New Delhi : Abhishek Sharma missed out on the chance to break Virat Kohli’s all-time T20 record for India as he was dismissed for 34 runs against South Africa in the Ahmedabad T20I on Friday, December 19. Abhishek was just 12 runs away from breaking Kohli’s landmark before he was dismissed by Corbin Bosch in the match at the Narendra Modi stadium.
It has been a sensational year for Abhishek in the shortest format of the game as he has been the best batter for India in T20Is and scored hundreds for Sunrisers Hyderabad and Punjab in the IPL and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The Indian opener scored a total of three hundreds and nine fifties during the 41 T20s he has played this year.
Abhishek scored 859 runs in 21 matches for India with a strike-rate of 193.46 and got 439 runs in 14 matches for SRH this year.
How did Abhishek perform in Ahmedabad?
Much like it has been the trend with the Punjab opener this year, there were no half measures from him right from the start. Abhishek started with a boundary and then followed with a hat-trick of fours against Marco Jansen in the very next over. He found support from Sanju Samson, who was making his return to the team in Shubman Gill’s absence.
The fifth over saw him get two more boundaries as India raced past the 50-run mark in the fifth over. The final over of the powerplay saw Abhishek get a six before getting a glove on a bouncer from Bosch. While the Indian opener went for the review, the snicko showed that there was a touch.
Abhishek and Samson put on 63 runs for the first wicket. The Indian opener missed out on the record set by Kohli in 2016, where he scored 973 runs in the IPL.
Most T20 runs for India in a calendar year
- Virat Kohli – 1614 runs (2016)
- Abhishek Sharma – 1602 runs (2024)
- Suryakumar Yadav – 1503 runs (2022)
- Yashasvi Jaiswal – 1297 runs (2023)
- Shreyas Iyer – 1264 runs (2017)
