india opener Abhishek Sharma continued his meteoric rise in T20I cricket, shattering another massive world record during the fourth T20I against the West Indies on Wednesday. Abhishek smashed his 69th six of 2026 to become the player with the most sixes in a calendar year in T20Is. He went past former India captain Suryakumar Yadav‘s record of 68, which was set in 2022. With India scheduled to play six more T20Is this year, Abhishek will have the opportunity to reach triple figures.
Most sixes in a calendar year (full-member nations):
Abhishek Sharma – 69* (2026)
Suryakumar Yadav – 68 (2022)
Abhishek Sharma – 54 (2025)
Ishan Kishan – 52 (2026)
In the previous match, Abhishek became the sixth Indian to reach 2,000 T20I runs.
The other five members of India’s 2,000-run club include: Rohit Sharma (4,231 runs), Virat Kohli (4,188 runs), Suryakumar Yadav (3,272 runs), Hardik Pandya (2,288 runs) and KL Rahul (2,265 runs).
This year continues to be highly productive for Abhishek despite a few hiccups, having scored 950 runs in 33 matches and innings at an average of over 29 and a strike rate of over 206. He has registered one century and eight fifties, with his career-best 108 being the fastest T20I century by a batter from a Test-playing nation.
However, Abhishek managed only 29 off 24 balls in the Hyderabad T20I, with India losing the match by 24 runs.
Chasing 248, Sanju Samson gave India a flying start, slamming a 20-ball half-century. However, India kept losing wickets at regular intervals after Samson’s dismissal.
Tilak Varma (43) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (41) played quickfire cameos, but India fell short in the end.
With the win, West Indies levelled the five-match series at 2-2, with the two teams set to square off in the finale in Bengaluru on Saturday.
(With Agency Inputs)
