Brisbane: Team India won the T20 International series against Australia 2-1 after Saturday’s fifth and final game at the Gabba was abandoned due to heavy rain and thunderstorms.
The series opener in Canberra also had to be called off due to wet weather after just 9.4 overs in the Indian innings. Australia won the second T20I by 4 wickets at Melbourne, while India triumphed in the third and fourth games by 5 wickets and 48 runs at Hobart and Gold Coast, respectively.
On Saturday, India were asked to bat first after skipper Suryakumar Yadav lost his fourth toss in five games.
Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill raced to 52 without loss in 4.5 overs before play was halted once and for all.
In his brief knock of 23 not out off 13 balls, including two reprieves, Abhishek rewrote a world record. The swashbuckling opener became the fastest to reach the 1,000-run milestone in T20 Internationals in terms of balls faced.
Abhishek, a left-handed power hitter, took 528 deliveries to cross 1,000 runs, thereby surpassing Australian Tim David’s record. It was in the Hobart T20I six days ago that David reached 1,000 runs for the Aussies in 569 balls during his blistering knock of 74 off 38 balls.
The others in the top five are Suryakumar, who brought up 1,000 runs in 573 balls, England’s Phil Salt (599 balls) and New Zealand’s Finn Allen (611 balls).
As far as number of innings is concerned, Abhishek is second only to Virat Kohli among Indians. While Kohli took 27 innings to reach 1,000 runs, Abhishek did so in his 28th innings.
Abhishek was adjudged Player of the Series for aggregating 163 runs at a strike rate of 161.38.
