Ishan Kishan closes in on three T20 records before New Zealand series

Kishan has three milestones within reach

Ishan Kishan goes into India’s five-match T20I series against New Zealand with three major batting records in sight. The series is scheduled to begin in Christchurch on Thursday, giving the wicketkeeper-batter an immediate chance to add to a prolific year.

Kishan needs seven runs to pass Suryakumar Yadav’s Indian record of 1,164 T20I runs in a calendar year, set in 2022. The report says Kishan has made 1,158 runs in 34 T20I innings this year, averaging 37.35 and striking at 172.06, with one century and seven fifties.

Rizwan’s international mark is also in reach

Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan holds the calendar-year T20I record for a batter from a Test-playing nation, with 1,326 runs in 2021. Kishan is 139 runs short of that mark. He is also 46 runs away from 2,000 career T20I runs: his reported tally is 1,954 in 66 matches, including one century and 13 half-centuries.

A wider T20 record would be unprecedented for India

Across all T20 matches, Kishan has scored 1,760 runs in 49 appearances this year, according to the report. Another 240 would make him the first Indian batter to reach 2,000 T20 runs in a calendar year. Nicholas Pooran, with 2,331 in 2024, and Rizwan, with 2,036 in 2021, are the only players reported to have passed that total.

After the New Zealand series, India are due to play three T20Is against Sri Lanka in December, leaving Kishan further opportunities to chase the milestones before the year ends.