Kolkata: England skipper Jos Buttler's dogged 66-run knock didn't help his side emerge triumphant against India in the first T20I of the five-match series at the Eden Gardens here on Thursday, January 23.
Buttler smoked 68 runs off 44 balls, including 8 fours and 2 massive sixes. This was his fifth T20I half-century against India.
Battling hard to get us to a defendable total 👊
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) January 22, 2025
Another captain's knock from Jos 👏 pic.twitter.com/RjSTqLreQK
With this explosive knock, Buttler named three major records in the process. Buttler became the player with the third most runs and joint-most fifty-plus scores vs India in T20 internationals. He also achieved another significant milestone as he became the only seventh overall and second Englishman to complete 12,000 runs in T20 cricket.
2022 T20 World Cup-winning skipper Buttler also became the player to score the third most T20I runs against India, surpassing David Miller of South Africa. The Englishmen now have 566 runs vs India in just 23 T20Is at an average of 35.37 at a strike rate of 146.63. He is now third in the list, led by Nicholas Pooran, who has 592 runs in 20 innings at an average of 32.88, followed by Glenn Maxwell, who has 574 runs.
The right-hand batter has now equalled West Indies' swashbuckling wicket-keeper batter Nicholas Pooran's tally of 5 fifties vs India. The list is followed by South Africa's Quinton de Kock, Australia's Glenn Maxwell and New Zealand's Colin Munro who have four fifty-plus scores vs India under their belt.
Buttler, now the seventh-highest run scorer in T20Is, became the only second England cricketer after Alex Hales (13,384) to score 12,000 runs in T20s. Buttler has 12,035 runs to his name in T20 cricket. While in the overall list, Buttler is behind Chris Gayle (14,562), Shoaib Malik (13,492), Kieron Pollard (13,434), Hales (13,384), Virat Kohli (12,886) and David Warner (12,757).
With four more T20Is remaining in the series, Buttler has a great opportunity to become the first Englishmen and fourth cricketer to hit 150 sixes in the shortest format of the game. He currently has 148 sixes to his name.
