So today I was feeling bored and remembered how insane some Indian batsmen smash the ball in T20 games. Decided to figure out who actually scored the quickest hundreds for India in international matches. Seemed straightforward? Not even close.
Where I Started
First, I fired up my laptop and yelled at the old thing for taking forever to boot. Needed reliable numbers, right? Hit the usual cricket stats places. Big mistake. Some sites had one player listed, others had different names, balls faced didn’t match up anywhere. Felt like chasing my own tail.
Got a pen and this ratty notebook I keep for messy stuff like this. Started writing down every Indian century in T20 Internationals I could find. Scrolled through so many old scorecards my eyes started hurting. Forgot how many guys actually managed it! Found about 10 or 11 names in total who’ve done it for India.
The Messy Sorting Part
Alright, now for the speed part. Needed the ball count for each hundred. Pulled the data for each knock. Manually punched each ball count into a list on my screen. This is where it got properly annoying. Some records listed balls faced only until the hundred, others gave the whole innings. Had to be super careful only grabbing the balls taken for the century itself. Almost mixed up Rohit’s 100 off 56 balls with someone else’s score! Rubbed my eyes and double-checked.
Then it was calculator time. Sorted all those ball counts from lowest to highest. Expected maybe a clear winner. Nope! Ended up with a bunch of guys clustered super close together around the 35-50 ball mark. Wild stuff. Here’s the top speed demons I finally settled on:
- Suryakumar Yadav – 45 balls (That knock against Sri Lanka? Pure fire.)
- KL Rahul – 46 balls (Remember that hammering against England? Blink and you missed it.)
- Rohit Sharma – 56 balls (Couple times actually, the man loves going big).
What I Finally Figured Out
Took way longer than I thought it would! Biggest surprise? Virat Kohlin’t even near the top for fastest tons in T20Is for India! He’s got tons, sure, but not the quickest ones. Guess he likes taking his time building those sometimes. Surya just owns that fastest crown right now.
Yeah, the stats places still disagree on minor things here and there, but after bashing my head against it, I’m calling this the real deal based on the balls faced just for the hundred. These guys swing hard right from the start. Absolute madness.
