Ind VS Sl: Shreyas Iyer joins the record list

Shreyas Iyer, in the third T20 against Sri Lanka in Dharamsala, Team India’s ‘player-of-the-match’ and’man-of-the-series’ was on fire, cruising to his third consecutive fifty in the format. Iyer, who was named captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season, scored over 200 runs in the series, ensuring India’s 12th consecutive T20 victory and a 3-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka.

Iyer had struck 74 not out off 44 balls in the second T20I as India chased down a large mark of 184. He scored another 50 off just 29 balls in the third T20I.

With his third successive half-century of the series, Iyer entered a select group that included previous skipper Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and KL Rahul. Iyer is one of just four Indian batsmen to record three half-centuries in a row in the limited-overs game. In a three-match T20I bilateral series, he presently has the highest runs (204) for India. In 2016, Virat Kohli scored 199 runs against Australia.

Kohli was the first Indian to achieve this feat, scoring three fifty-plus scores in a row in 2012. In 2014 and 2016, he reprised his feats of valour.

In 2018, Kohli was joined by Rohit Sharma, the current captain. Rahul, the opener, has reached this milestone twice, in 2020 and 2021. Only Iyer and Kohli have ever scored three back-to-back half-centuries in a series. Iyer also became only the second hitter in T20I history to have three consecutive undefeated 50-plus scores. In 2019, Australian opener David Warner did it against Sri Lanka.