India National Cricket Team: Abhishek Sharma's 30-Ball Ton Seals 3-0 Friendship Cup Sweep vs Afghanistan

The India national cricket team completed a 3-0 sweep of Afghanistan in the Friendship Cup 2026, but it was Abhishek Sharma's record-shattering 108 off 34 balls in the third T20I at New Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium that drove the search spike. Google Trends data from 18 September 2026 shows roughly 10,000 searches for the team in 24 hours, up about 300% — interest fuelled by the fastest T20I hundred ever by an Indian batter.

What Abhishek Sharma's 108(34) Actually Broke

Abhishek reached his century in just 30 balls, with nine fours and 11 sixes. According to the BCCI's match report, the innings broke Rohit Sharma's 35-ball record for the fastest T20I hundred by an Indian, set against Sri Lanka in Indore in December 2017. It is also the fastest T20I century by a batter from a Full Member nation, going past the 33-ball mark jointly held by Zimbabwe's Sikandar Raza and New Zealand's Finn Allen.

Context matters here: Abhishek's 30-ball ton is not the fastest in all T20I history. It ranks third overall, behind Sahil Chauhan's 27-ball hundred for Estonia against Cyprus in 2024 and Muhammad Fahad's 29-ball effort for Turkey against Bulgaria in 2025. Among matches between top-tier nations, though, no one has done it quicker.

Series Numbers and India's Record Powerplay

Abhishek ended the three-match series with 229 runs at an average of 76.33 and a strike rate of 269.41, hitting 22 sixes across the series. He collected both Player of the Match and Player of the Series awards. His 11 sixes in the Delhi innings are the second-most by an Indian in a T20I innings — behind only his own 13 sixes against England in Mumbai in February 2025.

India also posted its highest-ever T20I powerplay score, racing to 100 for no loss in the first six overs. Sanju Samson added a fluent 50 off 35 balls, his second successive fifty-plus score, before India finished on 221 for seven. Afghanistan fought back late, conceding just 37 runs in the final five overs while taking four wickets, but the result completed a 3-0 whitewash for the hosts.

The Six-Hitting Race With Vaibhav Sooryavanshi

Beyond the series, Abhishek's knock reshaped a season-long storyline: the six-hitting contest with teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Per The Times of India, Abhishek now has 96 sixes in all T20 cricket in 2026, ten clear of Sooryavanshi's 86. Note that these figures cover all T20 cricket — domestic and franchise leagues included — not internationals alone.

The nuance: while Abhishek leads on volume, Sooryavanshi clears the rope more frequently, hitting a six every 4.99 balls compared to Abhishek's 6.64. Abhishek's 96 sixes are the second-most by an Indian in a calendar year in all T20s, behind only his own 108 from 2025. With both first-choice openers in form, Sooryavanshi did not feature in the playing XI during this series — a selection question that will only grow louder ahead of India's next assignment.