Abhishek Sharma, India’s batsman, hit his second T20I hundred on Sunday in the fifth and final match of the series in Mumbai. He reached the milestone in just 37 balls, just short of India captain Rohit Sharma and David Miller’s all-time record. Rohit and Miller hold the record for the fastest century (35 balls) by Test-playing nation batsmen. At one point, even Abhishek looked like he would surpass them, but he fell short.
But Abhishek is uniquely etched in the history books. Reaching his nitro century on the first ball of the 11th over makes him the fastest player to achieve the milestone in a T20I innings. Previously, it was South Africa’s Quinton de Kock, who reached the century milestone in 10.2 overs.
India lost a wicket early in their innings when Sanju Samson was dismissed. But Abhishek wasted no time and immediately took the attack to the England pace attack.
It was in the third over that he started exploding, taking Jofra Archer for a four and then two monster sixes.
Abhisheck’s aggression picked up steam as he literally ping-ponged both Mark Wood and Jamie Overton. Overton, in particular, was at the receiving end of Abhishek’s fury and gave away sixes in the fifth over to get to fifty off 17 balls. Following this, Abhishek calmly wiped out every bowler that came his way and reached a spectacular half-century in 37 balls, second only to the now-retired Yuvraj Singh as the fastest fifteen T20I for India.
Tillak Varma, formerly batting with him, soon joined in on the destruction as India managed to register their highest Powerplay score in T20 International history. At the end of six, India managed to pump in 95 runs for the loss of one wicket and left the men from England gasping for respite.
Abhishek had shown his caliber to score fiery hundreds when he had equaled the record for the fastest T20 century by an Indian when he scored a hundred off 28 balls for Punjab in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in late 2024.
