It’s not easy to be consistent with heavy run scoring in T20 cricket and it’s probably not the primary demand of the shortest format of the game either. T20 cricket demands impact more than anything else.
If you are scoring heavily, but your runs are not making too much of an impact for the team because of the rate at which you are scoring them, the team isn’t going to benefit much. So, it’s about how much of an impact you are making with your batting in T20 cricket.
However, there are a few players who not only made impact with their run scoring at the start of their careers, but they scored heavily too in most of the games.
Here are the 4 Indian players who are the fastest to 500 T20I runs –
#1 KL Rahul (13 innings):
KL Rahul’s form might be a little shaky in Test and ODI cricket, but he has been very consistent in T20I cricket whenever he has got the opportunity to play.
And not only has he scored runs consistently, Rahul has also made sure he scores runs at a good tempo. Rahul reached the 500-run mark in only his first 13 innings that he played in T20I cricket for India.
Rahul is one of the only two Indian batsmen who have scored two or more centuries in T20I cricket and he is currently the highest ranked Indian batsman in the shortest format too.
#2 Virat Kohli (16 innings):
Virat Kohli and consistency are almost synonymous to each other, be it any format of the game. There has hardly been a season where Kohli has struggled for long periods, barring a couple of hiccups here and there. It took Kohli just 16 innings to reach the 500-run mark in T20I cricket.
Kohli has got this ability to go through the gears very smoothly. He has got the boundary-hitting ability and he can put the foot on the gas at any point, but then he also knows how to manipulate the strike and he creates such a fine balance between the two that he often ends up playing match winning innings for India in T20I cricket.
The Indian captain averages over 50 in T20I cricket which is nothing short of insane.
#3 Gautam Gambhir (17 innings):
Gambhir always played the role of an anchor in T20I cricket for India right since the beginning of his career and it was because of the fact that India had so many explosive batsmen batting at the other end that the team needed someone to hold one end and bat with a sedate approach.
The fact that Gambhir played the anchor’s role allowed him to bat long and he crossed the 500-run mark in 17 T20I innings. The left-hander’s 75-run knock in the WT20 final of 2007 is one of the most impactful knocks ever played by an Indian batsman in T20I cricket.
#4 Yuvraj Singh (17 innings):
For Yuvraj to complete his 500 runs in T20I cricket in just 17 innings was really a commendable achievement because he used to bat at a very tricky batting position. He was mostly a no. 4 or no. 5 batsman for India in T20Is and it’s not the easiest position to bat at all because you don’t have too many deliveries to get your eye in at that position.
When India first started playing T20I cricket, Yuvraj was at the peak of his career and he played some amazing innings in the first few T20I games that India played, which included some of the games of the WT20 2007 as well. India won that tournament by beating Pakistan in the final.
