During the first T20I match between India and West Indies, held on October 6 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, India's captain Shreyas Iyer achieved a historic feat by scoring an impressive hundred runs.
Iyer scored an unbeaten 102 runs off just 43 balls. His aggressive play included 10 fours and 6 sixes. Thanks to this powerful performance, India managed to reach the target of 172 runs in just 14.4 overs, leaving 8 batsmen on the field. Due to this achievement, the Indian team gained a 1-0 advantage in the five-match T20 series.
The most significant aspect of Iyer's innings was that he broke a major record set by Virat Kohli in the T20I format. Iyer became the first Indian captain to score a hundred while chasing a target in a T20I match.
Previously, the highest score chased by an Indian captain belonged to Virat Kohli. In 2019 against the West Indies in Hyderabad, Kohli scored 94* runs off 50 balls. Iyer surpassed this mark by scoring 102* runs.
Shreyas Iyer also entered the list of the third Indian captain to score a century in T20I. Before him were Rohit Sharma, who scored three such centuries as captain, and Suryakumar Yadav, who achieved this in December 2023 against South Africa. However, the uniqueness of Iyer's achievement is that he became the first player to score a hundred while chasing a target in T20I as captain of India.
Despite Iyer scoring 102*, the record for the highest chase score by a captain in T20I still belongs to Babar Azam of Pakistan. Babar Azam demonstrated brilliant play by scoring 122 runs off 59 balls against South Africa in 2021.
This record was matched by Singapore captain Aritra Datta, who scored 122 runs against Japan in Bangkok in 2024. Iyer's innings of 102 not out ranks seventh on this list, but his average strike rate of 237.21 makes it one of the most explosive captain performances in T20I history.
This match against the West Indies was Iyer's first T20I hundred. He batted at number four, and his style of play made the chase for the target for India one-sided. After India restricted the West Indies to 171 runs, Iyer reached the target by scoring 102* runs, and the team won, leaving 32 balls remaining, thereby increasing their series lead to 1-0.