During the opening T20I between Scotland and New Zealand on Wednesday, attacking opener Martin Guptill passed Rohit Sharma to become the greatest run-scorer in T20Is, both for men and women.
Rohit passed his countryman Virat Kohli to become the player with the most runs scored in T20Is earlier this year during a match against Sri Lanka. After scoring a 31-ball 40 against Scotland in the first T20I in Edinburgh, Guptill, who had been following closely behind Rohit, has now passed him.
The New Zealander batsman reached this significant milestone in the shortest version of the game throughout the course of this innings, surpassing India captain Sharma, who has 3379 runs. Guptill, a right-handed batsman, currently leads Sharma by 20 runs with 3,399 runs in T20Is.
In the second T20I of the home series against England in Ahmedabad in 2021, Kohli became the first player to surpass the 3000 run threshold in T20Is. Eight years ago, Guptill's countryman Brendon McCullum became the first player to surpass the 2000-run milestone. In men's T20Is, McCullum was in fact the first to surpass the 1000-run mark.
Guptill is currently at the top of the leaderboard, closely followed by the Indian team of Kohli and Rohit. Aaron Finch, the Australian captain, is in fifth place with 2855 runs, while Paul Stirling is fourth with 2894 T20I runs.
Guptill, 35, is the only New Zealander in the top 10, and McCullum, who finished his career with 2140 T20I runs, is presently ranked 12th.
While Guptill worked toward accomplishing the feat, his opening partner in Edinburgh added a milestone of his own by becoming the fifth member of the New Zealand men's team to reach a T20I hundred.
A late cameo from Jimmy Neesham, who finished on 30 off of 9 balls, helped New Zealand put on a massive 225 on the board as Allen achieved his first T20I hundred off just 54 balls.