Record Alert: Abhishek Becomes First Player To...

The southpaw surpassed 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.

Team India opener Abhishek Sharma continued his red-hot form in the Asia Cup, blasting a 31-ball 61 in a Super 4s encounter against Sri Lanka, in Dubai, on Friday.

The scintillating knock helped him etch his name into the record books as he became the first player to touch the 300-run mark in the T20 format of the continental event, surpassing Pakistan's Mohammed Rizwan (281 runs in six innings during the 2022 edition).

Abhishek notched his third successive fifty in the tournament with a fluent knock which came at a staggering strike rate of 196.77, containing eight fours and two sixes.

Abhishek is the leading run-getter in the tournament with 309 runs in six innings at an average of 51.50 and a strike rate of 204.63. His best score is 75, which came against Bangladesh.

He has joined battling stalwarts Virat Kohli (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  Sharma (257 runs in the 2024 T20I World Cup) to have 250-plus runs in a T20I competition.

The 25-year-old southpaw is, in fact, the only second Indian after Virat to score 300-plus runs in a multi-nation T20I tournament. He is 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 tally by a player from a Test-playing nation in a T20I tournament/series, only behind England's Phil Salt, who amassed 331 runs in five innings. Abhishek needs just 23 more runs in the final against Pakistan to secure the top spot.

He reached his fifty off 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) by registering successive 30-plus scores in T20Is.

Abhishek has also joined the elite company of Virat (thrice), K L Rahul and Suryakumar (twice), and Rohit and Shreyas Iyer (once) to have three successive fifty-plus scores in T20Is.

In 11 T20Is this year, he has aggregated 588 runs in 11 innings at an average of 53.45 and a strike rate of 211.51.