India kicked off their preparations for the T20 World Cup 2024 with a thrilling win against Australia in the first T20I match on Thursday, November 23. India registered their biggest successful chase to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match T20I series at home with captain Suryakumar Yadav making the impact.
The world no.1 T20I bowler shrugged off his poor performances in the recently concluded ICC World Cup 2023 with a stunning fifty at Visakhapatnam's ADA-VDCA Cricket Stadium. Suryakumar scored 80 runs off just 42 balls to help India chase down a 209-run target and claimed the Player of the Match award.
Despite his struggles in ODIs, the experienced batter has been a consistent performance in the shortest format of the game. He has dominated the ICC T20I batting rankings for some time now and has been setting new records with some exceptional performances lately.
His latest knock was his third consecutive fifty in T20Is having scored two back-to-back fifties against West Indies in August. One more half-century will help him become the first-ever Indian cricketer to achieve four consecutive fifties in T20I cricket history.
Suryakumar is among five Indian cricketers Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Shreyas Iyer to register three consecutive fifties in T20Is but no player has managed to stretch the streak to four. Kohli was the first Indian to register three successive fifties in T20Is in 2012 and repeated the feat in 2014 and 2016. Suryakumar joined the elite list after smashing three consecutive fifties in 2022 and is on the verge of breaking the record in the second T20I match in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.
Most consecutive fifties by Indian cricketers in T20Is:
- 3 - Virat Kohli in 2012, 2014 and 2016
- 3 - Rohit Sharma in 2018
- 3 - KL Rahul in 2020 and 2021
- 3 - Shreyas Iyer in 2022
- 3 - Suryakumar Yadav in 2022 and 2023
