Indian cricket has a new record for speed in T20I centuries. This was the record that Abhishek Sharma put on the board with 30 deliveries with Afghanistan, beating Rohit Sharma’s 35-ball record from 2017.
The 26-year-old finally went up against 108 in 34 balls. The innings was one of the most prolific by the Indian batsman in the format with his scoring rate, as he struck out 11 sixes and nine fours.
The achievement also upended the list of world records. Abhishek’s century is now the third fastest in men’s T20Is with Estonia’s Sahil Chauhan being second with a 27-ball century and Turkey’s Muhammad Fahad third with a 29-ball effort.
There is another difference to Abhishek’s performance and that is no batsman has ever scored a 100 in T20Is, quicker against a Test playing country.
The numbers speak for themselves, but the moment that followed was the most unusual visual that could be captured on film in the evening. Abhishek didn’t go to the extent of raising his arms and dancing to the beats, instead, he sat and seemed to meditate on the occasion and the clip went viral in a matter of seconds.
It was his third 100 years in T20Is for India. His first, in the 2024 series against Zimbabwe, was during that series and his previous fastest hundred was against England at Mumbai.
The England game was enough to get Abhishek into the Indian record conversation. He hit a hundred in 37 deliveries to become the second quickest Indian to reach the milestone in T20Is, after defending his position with a 135 off 54 deliveries.
With this latest effort he has now dropped it down the list and thrown him into the company of the fastest of the century-makers in international T20 cricket.
It’s amazing how much damage he could inflict in such a short time. Abhishek had 108 runs from 34 balls, which is indicative of the fact that he scored most of his runs with boundaries and not through the traditional method of run accumulation.
He closed with an incredible strike rate of 317.64 – unheard of in T20 cricket. Another 36 runs were scored off his nine fours and 66 of his runs were scored from 11 maximums.
So was the record-breaking innings more than just another addition to India’s records. It was yet another milestone in Abhishek’s fledgling international career, and his unplanned time in meditation afterwards made for a memorable picture.