Ishan Kishan Passes Suryakumar Yadav's Record for Most T20I Runs by an Indian in a Calendar Year

Ishan Kishan has broken Suryakumar Yadav's record for the most T20I runs by an Indian in a calendar year. He did it in the fifth and final T20I against New Zealand at Seddon Park, Hamilton, on Sunday, November 1. Kishan scored 61 off 32 balls. That took his 2026 tally to 1,220 runs.

Suryakumar held the old mark with 1,164 runs in 31 matches in 2022. Kishan needed only six runs when he walked in. He went past the record within his first few balls. His new mark is 56 runs clear of Suryakumar's.

The same innings also took Kishan past 2,000 T20I runs. He is the seventh Indian to reach that mark. He now has 2,016 runs from 69 T20Is. He got to 2,000 in 1,345 balls.

The knock had five fours and five sixes. Kishan added 93 runs in 43 balls for the third wicket with Shreyas Iyer, who made 50 off 23 balls. India finished on 191 for 8. New Zealand chased it down in 18 overs and won by 7 wickets. India still won the series 3-2.

Abhishek Sharma is third on India's list for a single year. He has 1,153 runs in 2026. Suryakumar's 1,164 from 2022 is now second.

This is not the first big mark Kishan has hit this year. On October 3, he became the second Indian after Suryakumar to cross 1,000 T20I runs in a calendar year. He reached it in the Asian Games final against Pakistan in Aichi-Nagoya.

Two bigger marks are still ahead of him. Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan holds the record for a batter from a Test-playing nation. He scored 1,326 runs in 2021. Kishan is 106 runs short of that. The overall record belongs to Austria's Karanbir Singh, who scored 1,488 runs in 2025.

Kishan will get more chances this year. India play a three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka in December.