August 3rd is going to write a new chapter in the history of Indian cricket when India will play against West Indies in Trinidad in a T20 match, they’ll be only the second team to play 200 International T20I matches. Right now Pakistan is the only team to have an experience of 200 T20I matches at the international level, they achieved this feat last year when they played against England. In the history of the shortest cricket format, Indian Premier League franchise Mumbai Indians were the first team to play 200 T20I matches at any level. In this format of the game, India made their debut against South Africa about 13 years ago at Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg on 1 December 2006.

Twenty20 International (T20I) is the shortest format of cricket at the international level, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The first-ever T20I match between two men’s sides was played on 17 February 2005, involving Australia and New Zealand.

Just having a 1-match experience in the format, team India participated in the Inaugural edition of the T20 world cup 2007, and they returned as its winner, defeating their arch-rival Pakistan in the final by 5 runs. The inexperienced team led by the young captain MS Dhoni stunned everyone with their performance. The 2007 edition is famous for Yuvraj Singh’s six sixes in an over-and-bowl-out incident involving India and Pakistan. 

India’s former T20I captain and modern-day great Rohit Sharma holds the record of playing the most number of T20I matches (148) and hitting the most individual centuries (4) by a player. He is also the second-highest run-getter in the format with 3853 at an average of 31.32. He also tops the six-hitting chart with 182 sixes under his name. His colleague and another modern-day legend, Virat Kohli is the first player to complete 4000 T20I runs in history.

West Indian legend Chris Gayle was the first player to score a T20I century. Since then there are more than 100 centuries scored by the different players of different teams. India is the top contributor in the list with 13 International centuries from 7 players. The leggy Yvzi Chahal is the leading wicket-taker for India in the format with 91 wickets. The best economy rate for a fast bowler in T20I cricket is also held by an Indian Bhuvneshwar Kumar.