Kushal Bhurtel joins global T20I century elite

KATHMANDU: Kushal Bhurtel has entered an elite group of men's T20I batters after scoring back-to-back centuries for Nepal in the Asian Games Men's T20I Qualifier.

Bhurtel smashed 129 off 43 balls against China on May 31 before hitting 126 off 54 balls against Malaysia on June 4 at the Singapore National Cricket Ground.

The two innings took Bhurtel to three T20I centuries. He is now the first Nepal batter to score three hundreds in men’s T20Is.

Only a small group of batters have scored three or more T20I centuries. Rohit Sharma and Glenn Maxwell lead the global list with five hundreds each. Phil Salt and Suryakumar Yadav have four.

Bhurtel has now joined the three-century bracket, alongside names such as Babar Azam, Colin Munro, Finn Allen, George Munsey, Muhammad Waseem and Sanju Samson.

The Malaysia innings also made Bhurtel Nepal’s leading T20I run-scorer. He now has 2240 runs, going past Dipendra Singh Airee’s 2211.

Bhurtel’s T20I career tally stands at 2240 runs from 76 innings, with 14 fifties, three hundreds and 107 sixes. His strike rate is 136.01.

His highest T20I score remains 129 against China. That innings included 16 sixes and six sixes in one over, making him the second Nepali after Dipendra to achieve the feat in men’s T20Is.

Bhurtel had scored his first T20I hundred against the Philippines in 2022. Four years later, he has turned that mark into a record-setting run for Nepal.