Rohit Sharma will become the first Men’s cricketer to play 150 T20I.
New Delhi: Indian captain Rohit Sharma is set to play his 150th T20I match and this is the most by any men’s cricketer. The cricketer will play his 150th match against Afghanistan on January 14 at Holkar Stadium in Indore. So far Rohit has scored 3853 runs in T20Is including 4 centuries with the highest score of 118 runs.
Ireland’s Paul Stirling is second in the tally the Irish batting all-rounder has played 134 T20I matches so far. The former India captain is on 11 in the tally of most T20I matches as he played 115 T20 international matches and scored 4008 runs including a century with the highest score of 122* runs which he scored against Afghanistan in Asia Cup 2022.
Here is the list of cricketers who played most T20I matches:
1. Rohit Sharma, India: 149 T20I matches.
2. Paul Stirling, Ireland: 134 T20I matches
3. GH Dockrell, Ireland: 128 T20I matches.
4. Shoaib Malik, Pakistan: 124 T20I matches.
5. MJ Guptill, New Zealand: 122 T20I matches.
6. Mahmudullah, Bangladesh: 121 T20I matches.
7. Mohammad Hafeez, Pakistan: 119 T20I matches.
India have already won the first T20I where Kohli was not playing due to personal reasons but now the star batter has joined the India squad in Indore and will feature in the 2nd T20I. He will be playing a T20I after India’s loss in T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final against England in Australia.
It is then imperative for Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar and Axar Patel to produce a defining effort against the Afghans to keep themselves within the selectors’ sight as the move to find a perfect squad for the T20 World Cup has gathered steam.
That India will not play another T20I series ahead of the marquee event in June increases the gravitas around their performance against Afghanistan.
Jitesh has all the reasons to place himself among the frontrunners as the wicketkeeper batter has overtaken Ishan Kishan in the pecking order since replacing the latter from the fourth T20I against Australia at Raipur last year.
The Maharashtra man has struck a couple of useful 30s down the order, but he would not have missed the need for a bigger knock to cement his claim.
Squads
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.
Afghanistan: Ibrahim Zadran (captain), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK), Ikram Alikhil (WK), Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Fareed Ahmad, Naveen Ul Haq, Noor Ahmad, Mohammad Saleem, Qais Ahmad, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan.