India will lock horns against Zimbabwe in the first T20I of the three-game series on Thursday, July 22 at the Harare Sports Club. In the series opener, Abhishek Sharma will have a golden chance to break an individual milestone in T20 cricket.
Abhishek Sharma eyes big record
If Abhishek manages to score at least 16 runs in the series opener against the Sikandar Raza-led side, then he will breach the 6,000 runs in T20 format. If he reaches the milestone, then he will become the fourth Indian batter after KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill to reach the feat within 200 innings.
Currently, Abhishek Sharma has managed to amass 5,984 runs in 199 innings across 203 games. Notably, 53 of those 203 came for the Indian team and six came against Zimbabwe.
Notably, KL Rahul is the fastest Indian batter to reach the 6,000 run-mark. The star wicketkeeper batter took only 166 innings to complete the landmark. At second place, Virat Kohli took 184 innings to reach the landmark, while Shubman Gill comes at third, who needed only 185 innings.
Here is the list of fastest Indians to complete 600 runs in T20s:
| PLAYER | TEAM(S) | MATCHES | INNINGS |
|---|---|---|---|
| KL Rahul | India, Karnataka, Lucknow Super Giants, Punjab Kings, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Sunrisers Hyderabad | 179 | 166 |
| Virat Kohli | Delhi, India, Indians, Royal Challengers Bengaluru | 196 | 184 |
| Shubman Gill | India, Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders, Gujarat Titans |
However, the world record for the fastest to 6,000 T20 runs is held by legendary West Indies batter Chris Gayle, who took only 162 innings to reach the landmark. It will be interesting to see if Abhishek manages to reach the milestone in the first T20I itself.
Abhishek Sharma's recent form in T20Is
In the two-game series against Ireland, the star left-handed batter enjoyed a great start, scoring 49 runs off just 20 deliveries before getting out on a golden duck in the second game.
During the five-game series against England, Abhishek managed to amass a total of 131 runs across five games at an average of 26.20 and aggressive strike rate of 177.03. In the series opener, he smashed 59 runs off 24 balls with the help of six fours and four sixes. However, in the later games he witnessed a steep decline in his performances.