5 big records Rohit Sharma broke in the 3rd T20I win over Afghanistan

Rohit Sharma lit up the Bengaluru skies with a magnificent hundred against Afghanistan in a double Super Over thriller on Wednesday.

The Indian captain scored an unbeaten 121 off 69 balls and, with a big help from Rinku Singh (69* off 39), lifted the team's score from 22/4 to 212/4. Afghanistan's top order responded well, though, and tied the game.

Rohit became the first batter to bat thrice in a T20I after the first Super Over was tied as well. He scored 13 and 11 runs, respectively, in those before Ravi Bishnoi displayed brilliant defensive leg-spin bowling skills to win the game for India.

There was a bit of controversy over the second Super Over. The skipper retired himself out on the last ball of the first one to allow Rinku Singh to be on the non-striker's end before coming back to bat again in the second.

ICC's rules don't allow a batter 'dismissed' in one super-over to bat in another. Although retired-out is a legitimate mode of dismissal, the umpires didn't stop him and the ICC was yet to issue a clarification at the time of writing this piece.

Still, Rohit's knock came after two consecutive ducks and gave a new lease of security to his place in India's T20I side. It also helped him break some massive records on the way, five of which are listed below:

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#5 Most runs as captain in T20Is

India have seen only three T20I captains with major runs at the helm. The 121 pushed Rohit's runs tally as captain to 1,648 runs (54 games) and took him past his predecessor, Virat Kohli's 1,570 runs from 50 games.

The third-best in the list is MS Dhoni, who batted much lower in the order than both of them and scored 1,112 runs in 72 matches. Rohit's average was the worst (37.06) among the three but he had the best strike rate (148.73).

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#4 Most sixes as captain in T20Is

Rohit hit as many as eight sixes in his knock, making it an overall 90 sixes from 54 innings for him. He went past former England captain Eoin Morgan's 86 maximums to become the highest six-hitter in the format.

While Morgan took 65 innings for his record, the Indian opener broke it in just 54 innings. The next on the list is Aaron Finch - 82 (76 matches).

Last year, Rohit broke Chris Gayle's record of most sixes across formats in international cricket and is now at a stage of his career where every six will be a new record.

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#3 Rohit Sharma is now the oldest Indian to score a T20I hundred

At 37 years and 262 days, Rohit became the oldest Indian and the sixth-oldest overall to score a T20I ton. He surpassed Virat Kohli, who was 33 years and 307 days old when he hit his maiden T20I hundred (122*) during the T20 Asia Cup in 2022, which also came against Afghanistan.

Gibraltar's Avinash Pai scored a 107* against Bulgaria when he was 39 years and 272 days old in 2021 and sits at the top of the overall records table.

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#2 Highest fifth-wicket partnership in a T20I

Rohit and Rinku's unbeaten 190-run partnership also put both of them in the record books. It was the highest-ever partnership for the fifth wicket in the history of T20Is. The previous best was Kushal Malla and Dipendra Singh Aireee's 145 for Nepal against Hongkong in the Asian Games last year.

It was also the highest partnership for any wicket for India, breaking Sanju Samson and Deepak Hooda's 176 runs for the second wicket against Ireland in 2022.

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#1 Most hundreds in T20Is

Perhaps the biggest record was this: it was the skipper's fifth T20I century. He now holds the record for the most triple-digit scores in T20I history, ahead of Suryakumar Yadav (4) and Glenn Maxwell (4).

Three batters have three 100s each in the format while 11 have two each. Rohit reached the record in his 151st match though and no other with at least two T20I centuries has played as many games.