-Vinay Kumar
Team India’s dangerous opener and Vice Captain KL Rahul played an unbeaten 51 runs in the first match of the 3-match T20I series against South Africa (IND vs AUS 1st T20I Match, 2022). With the excellent coordination of KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav, Team India managed to hoist the tricolor by 8 wickets at the loss of 2 wickets. This match was historic for him. Because, thanks to the innings of 51 runs in this match, he went ahead of Rohit Sharma (Captain Team India) and great batsman Virat Kohli.
The history of international T20 cricket tells that KL Rahul has scored the 19th half century against South Africa. It is worth noting that he has also scored 2 brilliant centuries in T20I cricket. In total played 65 matches, his bat has so far scored 2080 runs at an average of 40 and strike rate of 139.22.
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Not only this, KL Rahul is the third Indian batsman to score the most runs in T20I cricket. Rohit Sharma is at the top with 3694 runs. Virat Kohli is at the second position with 3663 runs at a distance of just 31 runs. Overall, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are at the first and second positions in terms of scoring the most runs in T20I cricket. KL Rahul is at the 16th position in this list.
Significantly, against South Africa, KL Rahul broke a special record of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli by hitting a half-century. The history of international cricket attests to the fact that both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have scored half-centuries against a total of 10 countries in their T20I cricket career so far. Whereas, KL Rahul became the first Indian batsman to score a half-century against 11 countries as soon as he hit a fifty against South Africa.
KL Rahul has hit 3-3 half-centuries against Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, 2-2 against West Indies and Afghanistan. Apart from these, his bat has given 1-1 fifty against Bangladesh, England, Ireland as well as against Namibia, Scotland and South Africa.