DC opener Shikhar Dhawan becomes 4th Indian to complete 7500 runs in T20 cricket

Delhi Capitals opener Shikhar Dhawan on Wednesday entered an elite Indian list after completing 7500 runs in T20 cricket in the ongoing Match 30 against Rajasthan Royals in Dubai.

Dhawan became the fourth Indian batsman after Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina to achieve the feat. Kohli leads the Indian tally with 9156 runs from 288 matches at an average of 41.61 with 5 hundreds followed by Rohit with 8858 runs in 335 games at 32.21 with 6 centuries and then comes Raina with 8392 runs in 319 T20s at 32.65 with 4 tons.

Dhawan is playing in his 267th match and 264th innings tonight which makes him the second fastest Indian to get to the milestone. Notably, Kohli was the first Indian to complete 7000 runs in T20 cricket in 2017.

Before this game he was 5 runs shy of the mark, and averaged just over 31 but remains the only one among the four aforementioned Indians to have not scored a hundred in the shortest format yet.

Overall, Dhawan is the 15th batsman to complete 7500 runs in T20 cricket but only the second in the top-20 after Shoaib Malik to have not scored in triple figures yet.

1588 of Dhawan's runs have come for Team India in 61 T20 international while 4785 runs he has amassed in the Indian Premier League in 166 matches since 2008. The Delhi opener averages just over 28 for India and has scored 10 fifties while in the T20 league his average goes up to 33.42 with 38 half-centuries.

Over the years, Dhawan has played in the IPL for 4 teams - Deccan Charges, Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad. He is 5th on the all-time list in the IPL behind Kohli (5668 runs), Raina (5368), Rohit (5114) and



David Warner (4990).

Dhawan was not in the best of forms until recently when he scored 69 not out in DC's last match against the Mumbai Indians but his knock went in vain as the defending champions registered a comfortable 5-wicket win in Abu Dhabi on October 11.

Before that game his scores this season were 5, 32, 26, 34, 35 and 0 in their previous 6 games.

Rajasthan did not make any changes to their playing XI with captain Steve Smith sticking with Ben Stokes as their opener. 

"I was gonna bat as well. Hopefully we can bowl well, restrict them and chase it later on. It's obviously used wicket and hopefully we will put some pressure with the ball. We are playing the same team. And yes, Ben (Stokes) will open again," said Smith. 

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler(w), Steven Smith(c), Sanju Samson, Robin Uthappa, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi

Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer(c), Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey(w), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Tushar Deshpande, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje

Rajasthan had lost only one match in Sharjah in their three appearances this season. Delhi Capitals was the one to defeat the Royals, by 46 runs, earlier month. But Rajasthan had bounced back in their next game to defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad, their first outside Sharjah, to inject some fire into IPL 2020. They presently stand in the penultimate position in the points table with three wins in seven games. Delhi, on the other hand, stand second with five wins in as many games.