Suryakumar on verge of eclipsing Pandya, set to join Dhoni in elite club

Showcasing his batting exploits in the series opener against South Africa, India’s Suryakumar Yadav shattered multiple records in the shortest format of the game at the Greenfield International Stadium.

In a match where batting icons Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma recorded forgetful outings, star batter Suryakumar slammed a match-winning half-century to help India register a convincing win over the Proteas. Suryakumar smashed 50 off 33 balls as India eased past the Proteas in the 1st T20I to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

In his impressive T20I career, Suryakumar has accumulated 976 runs in 32 matches for Team India. The star batter is 24 runs away from completing 1,000 runs in the shortest format of the game. Nicknamed Sky, the swashbuckling batter can achieve the milestone in the 2nd T20I between India and South Africa on Sunday.

Suryakumar is behind all-rounder Hardik Pandya in the list of India’s leading run-getters in T20I cricket. Pandya has scored 989 runs in 73 matches. Suryakumar can equal Mohammad Rizwan’s feat of completing 1,000 T20I runs in 31 innings. The 32-year-old only needs to play a 24-run knock to become the third-fastest India batter to 1k runs in T20Is.

Former Indian skipper Virat Kohli (27) is the fastest Indian batter to reach 1,000 runs in T20I cricket. Kohli is followed by KL Rahul, who achieved the elusive feat in 29 innings. Suryakumar can become the 9th Indian batter to complete 1,000 runs in T20I cricket for the 2007 world champions. Suryakumar is all set to join the special club which features the likes of Kohli, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, and Suresh Raina,

Continuing his incredible run in T20I cricket on Wednesday, Suryakumar became India’s highest run-scorer in a calendar year during the curtain-raiser of the South Africa series. Suryakumar has smashed 732 runs with an incredible strike rate of 180.29 in 2022. The Mumbai Indians (MI) superstar smoked two sixes in his entertaining knock to surpass Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan. The Indian batter has smashed the most sixes (45) in any calendar year. Rizwan had hit 42 sixes in 2021 while New Zealand’s Martin Guptill smashed 41 in the same year.