India wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan on Sunday created a new national record, becoming the highest run-scorer for India in T20 Internationals in a single calendar year during the fifth and final match against New Zealand at Seddon Park in Hamilton.
Kishan scored a blistering 61 off 32 balls to help India post 191 for eight in the final T20I. His innings took his tally for 2026 to 1,220 runs in 37 innings, surpassing the previous Indian record of 1,164 runs set by former captain Suryakumar Yadav in 2022.
Kishan needed just six runs before the match to go past Suryakumar’s record and achieved the milestone early in his innings.
With this achievement, Kishan also moved to the second position among batters from full-member nations for the most T20I runs in a calendar year. He is fourth on the overall list, behind Austria’s Karanbir Singh, Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan and Bahrain’s Fiaz Ahmed.
The fifth T20I also saw Kishan complete 2,000 runs in the shortest format of international cricket. He reached the milestone in 1,345 balls, becoming the third-fastest Indian batter to do so in terms of deliveries faced.
Abhishek Sharma holds the Indian record, having taken 1,024 balls to reach 2,000 runs, while Suryakumar Yadav is second with 1,164 deliveries.
Kishan’s performance came after a difficult start to the series. He scored one and zero in the first and fourth T20Is he featured in, while missing the second and third matches due to a low-grade right adductor strain.
The left-handed batter needed 45 runs at the start of the fifth match to complete 2,000 T20I runs. His 61-run knock helped him achieve both career milestones in the series finale.
-IANS
