Six T20 records Mohammad Rizwan broke in 2021

2021 was a year to remember for Pakistan’s wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan who piled up record after record with his batting display in the shortest format.

His match-winning performance on Thursday was yet another exhibition of brilliance, in which he scored a scintillating 45-ball 87 in a 158-run opening partnership with Babar Azam (79) to help Pakistan chase down a 208-run target against the West Indies in Karachi to complete a 3-0 clean sweep.

These are the records Rizwan broke in just 12 months.

Most T20I fifties

Rizwan’s innings of 87 last night was his 13th T20 international fifty-plus score, and 12th this year. With this half-century, he also carved his name in the record book for the most number of the T20I fifties in a calendar year.

Most sixes

In his innings against the West Indies, Rizwan hit three massive sixes, taking his total number maximums this year to 42. In the process, he surpassed Martin Guptill’s 41-sixes record in the T20I format in 2021.

No other batter, barring West Indies’ Evin Lewis (34) and Nicholas Pooran (32), has hit 30 or more sixes in T20I cricket this year.

Most fours

Rizwan’s 119 fours in T20I cricket this year is the highest by any international cricketer. So far, no batter, other than Rizwan, has scored 100 or more boundaries in a calendar year.

Most T20 runs in a calendar year

Rizwan’s golden run in 2021 started with a successful tour of New Zealand where he scored two fifties. This was followed by a brilliant run in the sixth season of PSL where he was the second-highest run-getter with 500 runs in 12 innings. He also had successful campaigns against South Africa, Zimbabwe, England, and then in the T20 World Cup, where he was the third-highest scorer with 285 runs.

Overall, the 29-year-old amassed over 2,000 T20 runs this year, becoming the only cricketer in history to achieve the milestone.

Most runs in T20Is

Rizwan’s 1,326 runs in T20Is is also the highest ever achieved by any batsman in a calendar year. He stands miles ahead of Chris Gayle’s six-year-old record of 1,165 runs made in 2015.

Most player-of-the-series awards

Rizwan scored four half-centuries in his last seven T20I innings. Due to his consistent performances, he won successive Player-of-the-Series awards against Bangladesh as well as against the West Indies.

Overall, the right-handed batsman received a total of six awards this year; two in Test cricket and four in T20Is, equaling Sachin Tendulkar’s 23-year-old record of most player of the series awards won in a calendar year. The Indian batting great had won as many awards in 1998.