The JSCA international stadium in Ranchi is all set to host the second T20I of the ongoing series between India and New Zealand. And there are high chances that it will bear witness to history being created on Friday. Two veterans of the game will take the ground, Martin Guptill of New Zealand and the recently appointed captain Rohit Sharma, chasing a historical record of most runs in T20 internationals.
The record currently belongs to Virat Kohli, who has scored 3227 in just 95 matches, with the highest score of 94 not out. Guptill on Wednesday came agonizingly close to breaking the record as he smashed a 42 ball 70. He fell prey to Deepak Chahar in the 18th over of the match. This left him stranded at 11 runs short of the record, and Guptill will have to restart his inning in Ranchi with 3217 runs to his name.
It will be easy for the Kiwi opener to chase this record down, considering Virat Kohli is rested for the 3-match series. However, let’s take nothing away from Guptill, who has put up a great show recently and is more than deserving of breaking this record. He is coming off from the T20 World Cup, where he was the second-highest run-scorer for New Zealand. The opener scored 208 runs from his 7 matches with the highest of 93 runs.
With that being said, it’s important to remember that Guptill won’t be running a solo race as he is accompanied by the Indian Skipper Rohit Sharma, who too is chasing this record. The quirky knock of 48 runs off 36 balls on Wednesday has taken Rohit Sharma to 3086 total runs in this format. Albeit he is 146 runs behind, one can not count him out. Also, with one more game to go in their series after Friday’s encounter, it will be interesting to see who walks away with the record at the end of the series.
