cricket

Updated: Feb 23, 2019 09:48 IST

Rohit Sharma has a chance to add more accolades to an already illustrious career when he takes the field during the first T20I against Australia in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

Rohit Sharma (102) needs two sixes to surpass New Zealand’s Martin Guptill and West Indies batsman Chris Gayle (both with 103 sixes) to become the batsman with the most number of sixes in T20Is.

During the ODI series against New Zealand, Rohit slammed two sixes in the third encounter and in the process, became the joint highest six-hitter for India with 215 hits. He currently shares the record with MS Dhoni.

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On the other hand, Virat Kohli will look to improve his sub-par batting record in the upcoming T20I series.

While Kohli is widely regarded as the best batsman in the world, his batting record in the shortest format states otherwise. Before the added burden of captaincy, Kohli enjoyed a rich vein of form in T20Is but it has changed drastically since him being named the skipper in all three formats.

So far, Kohli has led India in 20 T20Is and averages 34.00 with 510 runs, which is 23.13 lesser than his average without captaincy. Although his strike-rate has changed for the better, Kohli’s balls/boundary and innings/50 rates haven’t improved.

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Out of the 20 matches in which Kohli has led the side in T20Is, India have played eight matches at home. Stats reveal that his average as captain in away matches is better than home games and this might play on his mind in the forthcoming series.

Moreover, Kohli stands at a lowly sixth in the list of list of best average by captains with 500+ runs in the shortest format. Interestingly, Rohit Sharma — who takes the role of captain in Kohli’s absence — tops this particular list.