Rahmanullah Gurbaz's dismissal for a duck in Afghanistan's first T20I against India on Sunday brought up an unwanted milestone for the Afghanistan opener.
In the 1st T20I against India at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, Gurbaz's stay was brief. He was dismissed only in the second legal delivery of the match, as Jasprit Bumrah struck early.
IND vs AFG: Gurbaz goes past Rohit Sharma
With the duck, the right-hander has now moved past former India captain Rohit Sharma for second place on the list of most ducks as an opener in men's T20Is involving Full Member teams.
Gurbaz's early exit at the Arun Jaitley Stadium means he now has 11 ducks as a T20I opener, moving one clear of Rohit Sharma, who has 10. The Afghanistan wicketkeeper-batter was dismissed early by India's pace attack after opening
the innings alongside Ibrahim Zadran.
The leaderboard is headed by Ireland's Paul Stirling, who has accumulated 14 ducks as an opener. Gurbaz's latest unwanted record therefore leaves him just three ducks behind Stirling at the top.
Gurbaz's tally also puts him level with the broader group of batters who have recorded significant numbers of opening ducks, including Tillakaratne Dilshan and Soumya Sarkar, who have nine each.
For Gurbaz, the statistic will be an unwanted footnote to a series in which Afghanistan will need their explosive opener firing. Against India, however, his early dismissal has already given the hosts an advantage in the opening T20I.
Afghanistan score 156/8
Shreyas Iyer put the Afghans into bat, and they were rocked early. Gurbaz's dismissal started a precision, as they lost five of their top batters cheaply. Azmatullah Omarzai top-scored with a fluent 64 off 44 balls, while Mohammad Nabi contributed 33. Arshdeep Singh was India's standout bowler with 3/19, supported by wickets from Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel and Varun Chakaravarthy.
