Hit-Man on cusp of record: Rohit Sharma set to become first Indian to play 100 T20Is in Men’s Cricket

Stand-in captain Rohit Sharma will become the first Indian player and second in men’s cricket overall to complete 100 T20 Internationals when he will take the field in the second game against Bangladesh here on Thursday. That will also make him the second Indian player overall after Harmanpreet Kaur in Women’s cricket to play 100 T20Is.

Shoaib Malik (111 games) from Pakistan is the only player to have played more than 100 T20 Internationals as far as men’s cricket is concerned.

Rohit is currently the top-scorer in this format with 2452 runs with regular skipper Virat Kohli second in the list with an aggregate of 2450 runs. Rohit has scored the runs at a strike-rate of 136.67 with four hundreds and 17 half-centuries.

“It’s been a long journey since 2007, I made my debut in the T20 World Cup. There has been a lot ups and down in the last 12 years in this format particularly. This has taught me so many lessons going forward,” Rohit had said in Delhi, when asked about the milestone.

“When you come into the team as a youngster, you are trying to learn things which happened quite smoothly at start. Then with few ups and few downs, I have become a stronger player and understood my game really well.

“There are so many things I can talk about. It has been a fruitful journey, one which will always be remembered and cherished by me,” Rohit said.

His opposite number Mahmudullah Riyad is also on the cusp of a national record.

If he happens to hit two more sixes, he will be the first Bangladeshi batsman to complete 50 sixes in this format.