'Someone will surpass it one day & his name's...': Buttler backs this IND batter to break his record for most T20 runs

On August 5, England’s veteran wicketkeeper-batter Jos Buttler became the leading run-scorer in T20 cricket, surpassing former West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard. In the Men’s The Hundred 2026, the newly-appointed Manchester Super Giants captain Buttler scored an unbeaten 20-ball 51 against Welsh Fire to get the record in his name. While the Englishman was pleased to break the record, he made a bold prediction as well. He backed his former Rajasthan Royals (RR) teammate, 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to break the record in the future.

"It's really cool, actually, to think you've got the most T20 runs out of anyone," Buttler told Sky Sports. "Someone will surpass it one day - and his name's probably [Vaibhav] Sooryavanshi - but it's a proud moment.”

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Buttler now has 14,833 runs from 492 innings, averaging 35.48, scoring at a strike rate of 147.24. He has nine tons and 106 fifties in the format.

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Buttler at top, Sooryavanshi starting out

Compared to Buttler, Sooryavanshi is a rookie in numbers but not in T20 approach. He had a rough start to his T20I career in England after the record-breaking Indian Premier League (IPL) season. But, he found form in T20Is in Zimbabwe. So far, the young southpaw has scored 1,670 runs from 40 T20s at an average of 42.82 and strike rate of 216.32. He has scored four T20 centuries already and eight half-centuries. In addition, he has 148 sixes, 16 more than the number of fours he has hit in his T20 career.

Can Sooryavanshi become the leading T20 run-scorer in a decade?

However, it may not be as simple as it seems because Indian players are not allowed to play T20 franchise cricket apart from the IPL. Domestic tournament Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) is the only other T20 tournament he can play in and climb up the ladder. Despite plenty of T20Is being played in a year, Sooryavanshi may need a decade or more to score 10,000 T20 runs given that he doesn’t have a long rough patch. India's highest T20 run-scorer, Virat Kohli has 14,218 runs from 420 T20s at an average of 42.44, including 10 tons and 110 fifties. It took him nearly two decades to get to where he is now in T20s. Players from other countries have an advantage as they can play multiple T20 franchise cricket tournaments.