Abhishek Sharma broke the record for the fastest T20I century for a match between two Full Member countries in men’s cricket in a whirlwind knock in India’s third T20I against Afghanistan.
Abhishek finished with 108 runs in just 34 balls, getting to his century in 30 balls. The 26-year-old said after the match that he and the Indian team were simply following a philosophy that had been put in place during Suryakumar Yadav’s reign as captain.
“I remember in the first practice we spoke about how we want to dominate a game,” said Abhishek on BCCI.tv. “You have to be fearless, think about the team always. When SKY was there, he always wanted me to utilize the powerplay. Because of you see T20 game is mostly about the powerplays. That’s what GG bhai (head coach Gautam Gambhir) wanted. He wanted me to create that atmosphere in the dressing room where you can just go out there and be fearless, play the way you want.”
Abhishek Sharma holds a yoga pose after reaching his century in just 30 balls against Afghanistan. (Express Photo by Abhinav Saha)
Abhishek’s fury allowed India to score a whopping 100 runs in the powerplay. They went on to finish with a score of 221/7. Ravi Bishnoi and Nitish Kumar Reddy later took three wickets each while Axar Patel recorded figures of 2/9 as India bundled Afghanistan out for 94 runs.
This was the second consecutive series that India won, possibly marking an end to a rather uncharacteristic drop in form after they won the 2026 T20 World Cup. Suryakumar was sacked as captain after the tournament and under current skipper Shreyas Iyer, India suffered a historic T20I series defeat in Ireland, followed by a defeat to England.
India have since blanked Zimbabwe and Afghanistan and Abhishek said their confidence was never impacted by the brief downturn. “We dominated for the two years leading up to the T20 World Cup. Just after that one or two series can’t define our batting department or the way we want to play,” he said.