Pakistan's opening batsman Mohammad Rizwan, who has been in a consistent form in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2021, Sunday achieved a major milestone as he surpassed West Indies Chris Gayle to become the top batsman to have scored the most T20 runs in a calendar year.
Explosive left-hander Chris Gayle - who occupied the top spot as he had scored 1665 runs in 2015. However, Rizwan surpassed him and now sit on the top of the table with his 15 runs innings in the match against Scotland. He has so far mustered 1676 runs and still, the count is on.
Rizwan achieved the milestone in the 38th innings of his 40th match of this year. Indian skipper Virat Kohli is third on the list as he had scored 1614 runs in 2016. Pakistan captain Babar Azam is fourth with 1607 runs he made in 2019 while AB de Villiers with 1580 runs in 2019 rounds of the Top 5 runs getter in a calendar year.
Though outing against Scotland was not ideal for Rizwan yet he remains the key player for the green shirts and has been one of the major reasons behind the Men in Green's dominant show in the shortest format. In T20 World Cup 2021, Pakistan have sealed the semi-final spot with four successive wins against India, New Zealand, Afghanistan and Namibia. Apart from being a prolific opener, Rizwan has also done an excellent job behind the wickets for Pakistan.
Rizwan is also on the top of the list of most T20 international runs in a calendar year by scoring 966 runs so far this year and is all set to become the first-ever batsman to score 1000 runs in a calendar year in the shortest format of the game.