Iyer has also become the first-ever Indian captain to score a fifty in T20I cricket on English soil. He has gone past the record of Virat Kohli, who had a best of 47 as captain in a T20I match in Cardiff back in 2018. Rohit Sharma as T20I skipper had a top-score of 31 at Edgbaston in Birmingham in 2022 while former skipper MS Dhoni had a best of 30 not out at Lord’s in 2009.
The record for highest-ever score by any captain in a T20I match on English soil belongs to Australia’s Steve Smith, who had scored 90 in Cardiff in 2015. Former Pakistan captain Babar Azam had a best score of 85 in Nottingham in 2021.
During his knock of 68, Iyer also completed his 5000 runs in international cricket. Iyer now has 5031 runs in 147 innings in international cricket. Out of these, he has scored 3035 runs in 79 ODI matches and 1185 runs in 54 T20I games and 811 Test runs in 14 matches.
The Punjab Kings skipper has also joined an elite list by becoming one of the fastest batters to complete 5000 international runs. Virat Kohli holds this record by achieving this feat in only 113 innings while Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar had completed this landmark in 121 innings.
Iyer’s 68 and opener Abhishek Sharma’s 59 off 24 balls powered Indians to 189 for 7 in 20 overs after they had won the toss and elected to bat first. But rain washed out the entire England reply at the Chester-le-Street in Durham on Wednesday as the game had to be abandoned.
Former India batter Cheteshwar Pujara was delighted about Iyer’s brilliant innings of 68. Pujara was impressed by Iyer’s maturity after Indians had lost a couple of wickets early in the first T20I of the five-match series.
“It was an important knock from Shreyas Iyer and, when you are leading the team, you always look to lead from the front. He showed a lot of maturity because India were in trouble after losing a couple of early wickets,” Pujara said on JioHotstar’s ‘Match Centre Live’.
“Abhishek played a good knock, but it was important for Shreyas to hold one end up and take his time. Once he was set, he played some quality shots. If you look at his innings at the end of the 20 overs, you know that, as a captain, you have done your job. You have put your team in a very commanding position. This was a perfect knock from Shreyas, both as a leader and as a batter,” Pujara said about Iyer.
The Indians will now face England in the second T20I match of the series at the Old Trafford in Manchester on Saturday.