Records in T20 cricket rarely last long, but few fall as emphatically as Abhishek Sharma’s did on 17 September against Afghanistan.
The old record
Before this innings, the fastest T20I century by a batter from an ICC full-member nation stood at 33 balls, a mark jointly held by Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza, who reached it against Gambia in 2024, and New Zealand’s Finn Allen, who matched it against South Africa at the 2026 T20 World Cup. For Indian batters specifically, the benchmark had stood since 2017, when Rohit Sharma reached a century off 35 balls against Sri Lanka.
How Abhishek beat both
Abhishek’s innings against Afghanistan in Delhi went past both marks. He reached fifty in 16 balls, then needed only 14 more to bring up three figures – a 30-ball century that beat the full-member record by three balls and obliterated Rohit’s Indian mark by five. He eventually finished on 108 off 34 deliveries, with 11 sixes and nine fours.
Where it sits all-time
Even at 30 balls, Abhishek’s century is only the third-fastest in T20I history overall. Estonia’s Sahil Chauhan holds the outright record with a 27-ball hundred against Cyprus in 2024, while Turkey’s Muhammad Fahad reached his century in 29 balls against Bulgaria in 2025 – both knocks came against Associate-nation opposition, which is what makes Abhishek’s effort against a Test-playing nation especially significant.
The innings also set a separate record for the highest individual score inside the powerplay of a men’s T20I, with an unbeaten 76 off 22 balls. For everything else that happened across the series, our full stats breakdown of Abhishek vs Afghanistan covers every match, and our Abhishek Sharma form guide tracks how this fits into his broader 2026 season.
Records like this rarely stay unbroken for long in the modern game, but the margin by which Abhishek cleared both benchmarks suggests his 30-ball effort could stand for some time before the next challenger comes along.