After a below-par 10-run show in the first T20I, Sanju Samson roared back to form in the second T20I against Afghanistan on Tuesday (September 15) and played a superb knock of 57 runs off just 22 balls for India. He opened the innings with first-match hero Abhishek Sharma and added 88 runs for the first wicket in just 6.2 overs.
Samson, who needed just 20 balls to score his fourth T20I fifty of 2026, hammered seven fours and four sixes during his stay at the crease and also completed 1,000 runs in T20Is as an opener.
He is the fifth Indian after Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan and Abhishek Sharma to score 1,000 or more T20I runs as an opener.
Most runs as opener for India in T20Is
| PLAYER | MATCHES | INNINGS | RUNS | BEST SCORE | AVERAGE | STRIKE RATE | 100 | 50 | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rohit Sharma | 125 | 124 | 3750 | 121* | 32.6 | 143.02 | 5 | 27 | 349 | 184 |
| KL Rahul | 55 | 54 | 1826 | 91 | 36.52 | 136.98 | 0 | 21 | 147 | 84 |
| Shikhar Dhawan | 68 | 66 | 1759 | 92 | 27.92 | 126.36 | 0 | 11 | 191 | 50 |
| Abhishek Sharma | 55 | 55 | 1726 | 135 | 32.56 | 191.56 | 2 | 12 | 171 | 114 |
| Sanju Samson | 34 | 34 | 1026 | 111 | 32.06 | 181.59 | 3 | 5 | 99 | 69 |
The record for scoring the most runs for India in T20Is as
an opener is held by Rohit Sharma. Rohit, who led India to the T20 World Cup title in 2024, played 125 T20Is as an opener and scored 3,750 runs.
He is overall second on the list of openers with the most runs in T20Is. Only Ireland’s Paul Stirling has scored more runs as an opener than him in the 20-over format of the game. Stirling, who is the most-capped player in T20Is, has scored 3,818 runs in 159 T20Is as an opener for Ireland.
India win by 7 wickets
Thanks to Samson’s superb show with the bat in the second T20I, India chased down the target of 160 runs in 14.5 overs and secured a seven-wicket win. Apart from Samson, Abhishek scored 39 runs off 19 balls, while Ishan Kishan remained unbeaten on 38 runs off 23 balls.
Earlier in the first half, Nitish Kumar Reddy picked up three wickets for 24 runs in three overs to restrict the hosts to 159/8. The Ibrahim Zadran-led side once again failed to post a big total on the board after their middle-order batters produced another below-par show. Captain Ibrahim top-scored for them with 37 runs off 33 balls, while Darwish Rasooli, Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan scored 26, 20 and 28 runs, respectively.
