Dubai [UAE], September 26 : Indian opener Abhishek Sharma rewrote batting history books, offering them a slice of his brutality, as he became the first player to touch the 300-run mark in the T20I edition of the Asia Cup and also joined legends Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in an elite list.
Abhishek notched his third successive fifty during the ongoing Asia Cup, scoring an eye-catching 61 in 31 balls, with eight fours and two sixes. He struck at 196.77.
Now, he has overtaken Pakistan's Mohammed Rizwan (281 runs in six innings during the 2022 edition of the T20I Asia Cup) to have the best-ever T20I Asia Cup by a batter. He is the leading run-getter with 309 runs in six innings at an average of 51.50, with a strike rate of 204.63 and three fifties. His best score is 75 during this tournament.
He has also joined Virat (319 runs in the T20 World Cup 2014, 273 runs in the T20 World Cup 2016 and 296 runs in the T20 World Cup 2022) and Rohit (257 runs in the 2024 T20I World Cup) to have 250-plus runs in a T20I competition. He is, in fact, the only second Indian after Virat to score 300-plus runs in a multi-nation T20I tournament and just 11 runs away from having the best-ever T20I competition by an Indian batter.
Abhishek's tally of 309 runs is the fifth-highest runs by a player from a Test-playing nation in a T20I tournament/series, with England's Phil Salt's 331 runs in five innings at the top. Abhishek needs 23 more runs to secure the top spot here as well.
He reached his fifty in 25 or fewer balls for the sixth time in T20Is, one short of his skipper Suryakumar Yadav, who repeated this feat seven times.
The swashbuckling Punjab batter has also joined Rizwan (seven scores in 2021) and Rohit (seven scores from 2021-22) as a player with the joint-most successive scores of 30 or more runs in T20Is.
Abhishek has also joined the elite company of Indian batters Virat (thrice), KL Rahul (twice), Suryakumar (twice), Rohit and Shreyas Iyer to have three successive fifty-plus scores in T20Is for his nation.
After a shaky start to his T20I career last year despite a dominant century against Zimbabwe in his second-ever T20I, Abhishek has grown immensely in terms of maturity and power, making consistency and brutality co-exist in a single sentence like never before. In 11 T20Is this year, he has made 588 runs in 11 innings at an average of 53.45, a strike rate of 211.51, with a century and four fifties.
Coming to the match, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to field first in what is a dead-rubber clash, with India already in the finals against Pakistan and Sri Lanka out of the competition with two losses.
Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis(w), Kusal Perera, Charith Asalanka(c), Janith Liyanage, Kamindu Mendis, Dasun Shanaka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dushmantha Chameera, Maheesh Theekshana, Nuwan Thushara
India (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson(w), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy.