T20 World Cup: Mohammad Rizwan Scores Most Runs In An Year, Breaks Universe Boss Chris Gayle's Record

Mohammad Rizwan on Sunday broke the record for the most runs in a calendar year in T20 cricket during the penultimate Super 12 match between Pakistan and Scotland in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021.

Rizwan went past West Indies legend Chris Gayle's tally of 1665 runs to set the new record in the shortest format and has the chance to stretch it further as Pakistan will be playing at least one more T20I in the World Cup in the semifinals and 6 more games, 3 each against Bangladesh and West Indies, in November-December.

Rizwan needed 5 runs before the match against Scotland to surpass Gayle which he did in the second over after Babar Azam won the toss and elected to bat first.

Gayle had held the record previously for 6 years after achieving the feat in 2015. Virat Kohli (1614 runs in 2016), Babar Azam (1607 runs in 2019) and AB de Villiers (1580 runs in 2019) complete the top five in the list of most runs in a calendar year in T20 cricket.

Rizwan is also leading the run charts in T20 international cricket this year with over 960 runs and counting in 2021. He is comfortably ahead of the rest of the pack, including his captain Babar Azam.

29-year-old Rizwan has been in the form of his life this year with the bat, having started 2021 with 104 not out (his maiden hundred in the shortest format) against South Africa in Lahore in February.

This year he has already hit a hundred and 9 fifties in T20Is. Gayle had scored 3 hundreds and 10 fifties in 2015 while Kohli had 4 centuries and 14 half-centuries to his name in 2016.

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Rizwan was dismissed for 15 off 19 balls by Hamza Tahir just after the powerplay with Pakistan's score reading 35 for 1 in 6.1 overs.