Ishan Kishan on the brink of three major T20 records as India take on New Zealand

NEW DELHI: Ishan Kishan has three major batting milestones in his sights as India prepare for the five-match T20I series against New Zealand starting in Christchurch on Thursday. The wicketkeeper-batsman is closing in on the record for most T20I runs by an Indian in a calendar year, the overall record for a Test-nation batsman and the 2,000-run mark in T20 cricket in a single year.Kishan, who has enjoyed a breakthrough year in India’s T20I set-up, needs just seven runs to surpass Suryakumar Yadav’s Indian record of 1,164 T20I runs in a calendar year achieved in 2022.The left-hander has scored 1,158 runs in 34 T20I innings this year at an average of 37.35 and a strike rate of 172.06, including a century and seven half-centuries.

Ishan Kishan chasing T20I records

Kishan is also closing in on the calendar year record for most T20I runs by a Test nation batsman. Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan holds the mark with 1,326 runs in 2021, leaving Kishan 139 runs short of the milestone.The Indian batter is also just 46 runs away from becoming the seventh Indian to complete 2,000 runs in T20Is. In 66 matches, he scored 1,954 runs at an average of 31.51 and a strike rate of 148.81, with one century and 13 half-centuries.

Can Kishan become the first Indian batsman to 2000 runs in a year?

Apart from international cricket, Kishan has another major milestone in his reach. He has scored 1,760 runs in 49 T20 matches this year at an average of 38.26 and a strike rate of over 175.He needs another 240 runs to become the first Indian batsman to reach 2000 runs in T20 cricket in a calendar year. West Indies’ Nicholas Pooran and Rizwan are the only ones to have crossed the mark, with Pooran scoring 2,331 runs in 2024 and Rizwan amassing 2,036 in 2021.With five T20Is against New Zealand followed by a three-match series against Sri Lanka in December, Kishan has an opportunity to rewrite the record books before the end of the year.