Hardik Pandya Joins Elite List With 100 T20I Sixes; Slams 59 Against South Africa

Hardik Pandya has created a big record in the first T20I match being played between India and South Africa at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack. By hitting four sixes in this match, he became the fourth player to hit 100 sixes for Team India. Earlier, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Suryakumar Yadav were on this list. After the fall of four wickets for 78 runs, Hardik Pandya came out to bat and played a fiery innings of 59 runs in 28 balls, taking Team India to 175.

It needs to be mentioned here that Rohit Sharma leads the way in this regard. He has hit 205 sixes in T20 Internationals. Team India captain Suryakumar Yadav is in second place, having hit 155 sixes so far. Virat Kohli is in third place with 124 sixes. However, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have retired from T20 Internationals. Therefore, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya have a great opportunity to move up the list.

Hardik Pandya was injured during an Asia Cup 2025 match against Sri Lanka, keeping him out of action until November. The BCCI granted him clearance in the last week of November. Pandya then played for Baroda in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He scored a brilliant half-century in the very first match. Following this, when Team India was announced for the T20 series, Pandya was included in the squad. Pandya proved his fitness in the very first match of the series and also demonstrated that his bat has not forgotten how to score runs.

In this match, South Africa won the toss and decided to bowl first. Team India did not have a good start. Shubman Gill was out on the third ball of the match after scoring 4 runs. Captain Suryakumar Yadav also returned to the pavilion soon after, scoring 12 runs. Abhishek Sharma shared a 31-run partnership for the third wicket with Tilak Verma. Abhishek returned to the pavilion after scoring 17 runs. Tilak also got out after scoring 26 runs. From here, Hardik Pandya took charge and remained unbeaten till the end. He shared 26 runs with Axar Patel and 33 runs with Shivam Dubey. He added 38 runs in 17 balls with Jitesh Sharma to take Team India to 175.