India opener KL Rahul became the joint third-fastest cricketer to complete 1000 runs in Twenty-International (T20I) when he achieved the feat during the first of the three-match series between India and West Indies at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad on Friday.
The charismatic opener reached the milestone in his 29th innings and stands third with Australia’s limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch. The fastest cricketer to do so was Babar Azam when he completed his 1000 runs in 27 innings. Indian skipper Virat Kohli with 28 innings sits second on the list.
Rahul played a pivotal role in India’s record-breaking run chase of 208 against the Windies. After losing Rohit Sharma early, he hanged in with captain Kohli on a track which seemed pretty complicated from outside.
Describing the nature of the wicket, Karnataka cricketer called it a “weird” one while speaking with Yuzvendra Chahal on the latter’s talk-show ‘Chahal TV’ on the official website of BCCI.
“We saw in the first innings that when the batsmen were set on the wicket, it got easier to score runs. This wicket was a bit weird, it was not the flattest wicket that I played on but still, both teams managed to score 200 plus so I cannot complain about the wicket,” Rahul was seen saying.
CHAHAL TV: @klrahul11 opens up to @yuzi_chahal post #TeamIndia‘s 6-wicket victory against West Indies 😁😎 – by @RajalArora
Full Video here 👉👉https://t.co/kJDFtJdUYB pic.twitter.com/IqKU5Jfuqm
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 7, 2019
Initially, Kohli was struggling to find the middle of the bat and that is when Rahul played his part and laid the foundation for the chase. He played a 62-run knock and shared a century-run stand with his skipper for the second wicket.
“Initially, I got two-three boundaries in the second over of our innings and that gave me confidence. But unfortunately, Rohit got out a bit early, then Virat came in and it was important to form a partnership. Luckily, Virat stayed till the end and it all paid the dividend,” he added.