T20I cricket has reached an unbelievable landmark in the ongoing India vs Bangladesh series. The first match of the series, which was played in Delhi, was the 1000th T20 international in cricket history.
It took 14 years, 8 months and 19 days for T20I cricket to reach the tally of 1000. The first T20I was played on 17th February 2005 and by the end of 2018, the total tally had reached 717, which meant, on an average, 51 T20I matches were played every calendar year till 2018.
However, the equation changed when ICC granted T20 international status to 104 nations in 2019. Till 2018, only 18 teams had the international status.
This led to a lot more T20 games being played in different parts of the globe and the number, by the end of 2019, crossed the 1000 mark.
In the last 10 months, a total of 283 T20I matches have been played so far and we are still counting. This year, 69 teams have played T20 internationals, including the World XI side.
Let’s take a look at some of the key numbers related to T20I cricket –
Most capped Indian T20I players
The Delhi T20I saw Rohit Sharma play his 99th T20I for India which made him the most capped Indian T20I player. He went past MS Dhoni who has played 98 T20 internationals for India so far.
Looking at the overall statistics, the player to have played most number of T20Is is Shoaib Malik (111 T20Is) followed by Shahid Afridi (99), Rohit Sharma (99), MS Dhoni (98) and Ross Taylor (92).
As far as the list of most-capped Indians is concerned, Rohit Sharma, as mentioned above, tops it with 99 T20Is followed by MS Dhoni (98), Suresh Raina (78), Virat Kohli (72) and Yuvraj Singh (58).
Most runs
Rohit Sharma is the leader of the pack here as well with 2452 T20I runs so far. The first time Rohit became the leading run scorer in T20I cricket was against New Zealand in Auckland on 8th February 2019 when he surpassed Martin Guptill’s tally of 2188 runs.
Since then, it has been the cat and mouse game between Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Virat surpassed Rohit on 2 occasions on 19th and 22nd of September, 2019 in Mohali and Bangalore respectively. However, after Virat took a break from the ongoing Bangladesh T20I series, Rohit topped the chart once again in Delhi.
Format comparison
The first-ever test match was played in 1877 and it took 107 years for test match cricket to reach the tally of 1000.
The first ever ODI game was played between Australia and England in 1971. It was 24 years later in 1995 that the 1000th ODI game was played between India and England.
T20I cricket, in comparison, has been extraordinarily quick to reach the 1000 mark as it has reached there in less than one and a half decades.
Most wickets
As expected, Lasith Malinga, the bowling spearhead from Sri Lanka, is the highest wicket-taker in T20I cricket. He has taken 106 wickets in 79 T20 internationals.
Malinga is the only bowler to have crossed 100-wicket mark in T20I cricket followed by Shahid Afridi (98 wickets), Shakib Al Hasan (92 wickets), Umar Gul (85 wickets), Saeed Ajmal (85 wickets) and Rashid Khan (81 wickets.)
With Lasith Malinga still active in the T20I circuit, it seems he will hold the top position for at least a couple of more years.
Most Matches
Pakistan have played the most number of T20 internationals till date. They have played 149 games, followed by New Zealand (124 T20Is), Sri Lanka (123 T20Is), Australia (122 T20Is), India (121 T20Is), South Africa (115 T20Is), West Indies (113 T20Is) and England (112 T20Is).
Most Wins
Pakistan hold the record for most wins too in T20 internationals with 90 wins under their belt, followed by India (74 wins), South Africa (68 wins), Australia (64 wins), New Zealand (61 wins), Sri Lanka (59 wins), England (55 wins), Afghanistan (51 wins) and West Indies (49 wins).
