After a successful ODI series against Australia, India now travel to New Zealand for a full-fledged tour. The trip to New Zealand comprises of five T20Is, three ODIs and then two Tests which will be included in the Test championship. The tour starts on Friday with the first of the five T20Is at Eden Park Auckland.
India will be playing a five-match T20I series for the first time so there will be a lot of scope to give opportunities to many players. Playing in New Zealand means you are playing on those small grounds where even a mis-hit can go for a six, especially at Eden Park.
The India vs New Zealand series is the perfect set up for the batsmen as they can score runs heavily and break a lot of records. So, on that note, let’s have a look at three records that can be broken in the India vs New Zealand T20I series.
- Most 50+ scores in the shortest format
In the shortest format, there is always a race between Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the highest run-scorer in this format. Similarly, these two are at the top for this record as well.
Virat Kohli is currently holding the record with 24 fifties and no hundreds to his name but Rohit Sharma isn’t too far behind. The Indian vice-captain has 19 fifties and four hundreds to his name. So, he has 23 fifty-plus scores which is just one behind Kohli. Sharma already has the record for the most centuries in this format and during this series, he would want to go ahead of Kohli in the most 50+ scores category. It will be a tough fight between them which is a good sign for Indian cricket as both would want to score fifties.
- Most catches in T20Is:
This record is currently held by two people. South Africa’s David Miller and Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik both are tied at the number one position with 50 catches to their name. Martin Guptill is just behind both of them with 46 catches to his name from 83 matches.
This is a record which you can’t decide to break. It will happen on its own when the catches come to you. Having said that, there is a high chance that this record might be broken in this series because this is a five-match series and Guptill needs only five more catches.
Martin Guptill fields on the boundary in the end overs where a lot of catches can come and so there is a high chance that Martin Guptill might have this record after the series.
- Most runs as T20I captain
Captains from both the teams are in contention to break this record. At the moment, South Africa’s captain Faf Du Plessis holds this record with 1273 runs as captain in 40 matches. MS Dhoni, the former Indian captain is in the second position with 1112 runs in 62 innings.
The third and fourth place has been taken by Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli with 1083 and 1032 runs respectively. The Blackcaps skipper needs 190 more runs whereas his counterpart needs 241 runs to break this record.
The India vs New Zealand series is a five-game one that opens the possibility of breaking this record. Both the batsman are capable of scoring those many runs in the series, so this record might be broken till the end of the series.
