Abhishek Sharma unleashed a beast mode and wreaked havoc on England bowlers in the fifth and final T20I of the series at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on February 2. Abhishek Sharma cracked an explosive 37-ball ton to notch the second fastest century for India in the shortest format after Rohit Sharma. Notably, Rohit Sharma tonked 35-ball century against Sri Lanka 2017. Abhishek Sharma whacked 10 sixes and five fours to record his second ton.
Prior to Abhishek Sharma's explosive innings, the record for the second-fastest T20I century by an Indian belonged to Sanju Samson, who reached his hundred off 40 balls against Bangladesh at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Sharma's recent fifty was also the second fastest for an Indian in T20Is, surpassing KL Rahul's 18-ball fifty against Scotland in Dubai.
The fastest T20I fifty by an Indian remains Yuvraj Singh's blistering 12-ball effort against England in the inaugural T20 World Cup. The overall record for the fastest T20I fifty is held by Nepal's Dipendra Singh Airee, who achieved the feat in just 9 balls.
Despite Sanju Samson's early dismissal for 16 runs, Abhishek Sharma maintained the momentum for India, particularly targeting the pace of Jofra Archer and Jamie Overton. Throughout the series, Sharma displayed his dominance against Archer, facing 32 of his deliveries and scoring 60 runs at an impressive strike rate of 187.40.
India's Playing XI:
Sanju Samson(w), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy
England's Playing XI:
Philip Salt(w), Ben Duckett, Jos Buttler(c), Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Jamie Overton, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood