5 milestones Suryakumar Yadav can achieve in SA vs IND T20I series 2024
Suryakumar Yadav is set to lead India in the upcoming four-match T20I series against South Africa in South Africa. The first T20I will be played in Durban on Friday, November 8, while Gpeberha, Centurion, and Johannesburg will host the remaining three T20Is on November 10, 13, and 15, respectively.
After a tough series against New Zealand at home, the Indian team will be hoping for a successful outing in South Africa, although with a different squad and in a different format.
Suryakumar Yadav has emerged as one of India's finest T20 batters and has also led the side previously. He last captained India in a T20I series against Bangladesh.
Leading India overseas will be a test of his skills as captain and his ability to lead from the front, with the squad being filled with many youngsters. As he gears up to lead India in this series, there are also multiple milestones that the star batter could achieve.
Here are the five milestones that Suryakumar Yadav can achieve in the T20I series against South Africa.
5 milestones Suryakumar Yadav can achieve in SA vs IND T20I series 2024
#5 Leading run-scorer for India in T20Is vs South Africa
Suryakumar Yadav has scored 2544 runs in his T20I career so far. He has had a successful record against South Africa in the format, having scored 346 runs in seven T20I matches at an impressive strike rate of 175.63.
Rohit Sharma is the highest run-scorer for India in T20Is against South Africa at present with 429 runs. Virat Kohli takes the second position with 394 runs. Surya can go past both Kohli and Rohit, who are both now retired from the format, to become India's leading run-scorer against South Africa in T20Is.
#4 Highest run-scorer in IND vs SA T20Is
Along similar lines, another milestone that the current Indian T20I skipper can achieve is that of being the highest run-scorer in India vs South Africa T20Is.
South Africa's David Miller holds this record at present, having amassed 452 runs from 21 games at a strike-rate of 156.94. As mentioned earlier, Suryakumar Yadav has scored 346 runs against South Africa and needs another 107 runs to become the highest run-scorer in T20I matches between the two countries.
#3 Batter with most T20I hundreds
Exhibiting his class in the format at the international level, Suryakumar Yadav has already struck four centuries from just 74 T20Is. At present, Rohit Sharma and Australia's Glenn Maxwell jointly hold the record for most centuries in T20Is with five each.
Surya will need one century to equal this record and two centuries to become the batter with the most T20I hundreds. If he manages to do so, he will also become the Indian batter with most T20I hundreds.
#2 Fastest player to 150 T20I sixes
Six-hitting has been a key asset of Suryakumar Yadav's game in this format. While he has smashed 333 sixes in T20s overall, he has also scored as many as 144 sixes in T20Is so far.
In the four games against South Africa in this series, he needs to hit just 6 more sixes to reach the 150 mark and also become the fastest player to have done so. Given his power-hitting abilities, this should be a fairly easy milestone for him to achieve.
#1 Fastest batter to 5 T20I hundreds
As mentioned earlier, Suryakumar Yadav needs just one more century to equal Rohit Sharma and Glenn Maxwell in T20Is. As he achieves this milestone, he can also achieve an additional milestone in the process.
Suryakumar Yadav has played 74 T20I matches and 71 innings so far, with four centuries to his name. Maxwell, with five T20I hundreds, is the fastest batter to have gotten to the three-figure mark five times in T20Is. It took Maxwell 93 innings to score five T20I hundreds.
Surya, with just 71 innings under his belt so far, has ample time to reach the milestone and become the fastest batter to score five T20I hundreds should he manage to get even one century in this series.