Team India skipper Rohit Sharma added another feather to his illustrious hat by becoming the first male cricketer to cross the 3500-run mark in T20I history. The 35-year-old achieved the feat during the Asia Cup 2022 clash against Hong Kong on Wednesday in Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Overall, he has raced to 3,520 runs.
Interestingly, in women’s cricket, New Zealand’s Suzie Bates has achieved the rare feat as she has 3531 T20I runs to her name.
Notably, apart from Rohit, only three batters have crossed the 3,000-run mark in the shortest format. Martin Guptill (3,497), Virat Kohli (3,343), and Paul Stirling (3,011) are the other three players.
Rohit, who is the top run-getter in T20I cricket, also has the highest number of fifty-plus scores in T20Is (31). He also has four centuries to his name in the shortest format of the game.
Coming to the match, Rohit scored 21 runs against Hong Kong, which included two 4s and a 6. However, the Hitman couldn’t stay at the crease for much long as he was caught by Aizaz Khan off Ayush Shukla’s delivery in the fifth over of the match.
Earlier, Hong Kong skipper Nizakat Khan won the toss and opted to bowl first against India in the fourth match of the Asia Cup 2022.
After a nail-biting victory against Pakistan in a last-over thriller, scripted by Hardik Pandya, confident team India will be looking to continue their winning run against Hong Kong too in their second and final group league game and confirm their berth in Super Four of the tournament.
Though, it is worth mention that India dropped their star all-rounder Pandya from playing XI and replaced him with wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant for the clash against Hong Kong.
Speaking at the time of the toss, India captain Rohit Sharma, “We were going to bowl first as well. Looks like an even covering of grass and we need to bat well to get to a good score. We just want to continue to do what we are doing as a team. We don’t want to look at the opposition and play good and hard cricket. We need to do our basics right, which is what got us a victory against Pakistan. One change: Hardik Pandya is rested considering how important he is for us, Rishabh Pant comes in.”
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik(w), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal and Arshdeep Singh.
Hong Kong (Playing XI): Nizakat Khan(c), Yasim Murtaza, Babar Hayat, Kinchit Shah, Aizaz Khan, Scott McKechnie(w), Zeeshan Ali, Haroon Arshad, Ehsan Khan, Ayush Shukla and Mohammad Ghazanfar.