The unwanted record of India’s lowest scores in T20 cricket

India’s lowest score in T20 cricket came against Australia in a one-off T20I in February 2008.

In a match where none of the batters, barring Irfan Pathan could breach the 10-run march, the Indian cricket team stumbled to a lowly total of 74 runs inside 18 overs. 

After Pathan, who scored 26 runs off 30 deliveries, India’s highest individual score was a mere nine runs scored by Gautam Gambhir and captain MS Dhoni.

Champions stumbling

The 2007 ICC World Twenty20 champions, India’s struggle on the Australian surfaces was made evident by their performance in the Test series that preceded the only T20I and the kind of performance they put in the shortest format was far from being the stuff of champions.

India, having decided to bat, lost Virender Sehwag in the very first over which set the course of the match. By the end of the powerplay overs, the team lost five wickets at just 32 runs.

Australia, meanwhile, used as many as six bowlers to bowl 7.3 overs of which Nathan Bracken and Adam Voges shone the brightest. The former, who had an economy of 4.40, picked three wickets while Voges had two wickets in as many overs.

Such was Australia’s dominance that day that none of the bowlers conceded runs at an economy of more than six runs per over.

During the innings, only Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma could hit a boundary each. Furthermore, none of the players managed to hit a six on that day.

"Somewhere in the middle, they forgot their roles and responsibilities in the team," said India’s then captain MS Dhoni about the performance. 

"We lost too many early wickets, and in the middle overs it was really hard to determine whether to go after the bowlers or just rotate the strike because on a wicket like this you cannot really defend 120 runs," he added.

With the ball, Praveen Kumar managed to dismiss Adam Gilchrist, but captain Michael Clarke and Brad Hodge took their team to glory by an impressive nine wickets and 52 balls remaining.

Eight years after stumbling to their lowest T20I total, India recorded their second-lowest score of the shortest format, this time against New Zealand at home in 2016.

Playing in the 13th match of the 2016 ICC World Twenty20, India were bundled out for just 79 runs in 18 overs while chasing New Zealand’s 126/7.

This time around, only three players, including Virat Kohli (23), MS Dhoni (30) and Ravichandran Ashwin (10) could score runs in double digits as the team fell to the bowling brilliance of Mitchell Santner, Nathan McCullum and Ish Sodhi.

While Santer finished with four wickets with an economy of 2.75, the likes of McCullum and Sodhi picked two and three wickets each.

Meanwhile, India’s third-lowest total in T20I cricket came against Sri Lanka in 2021 when the team posted a mere 81/8 in 20 overs. Their scores of 92 all-out and 101 all-out against South Africa and Sri Lanka complete the top five list.

India’s lowest score in T20

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Featured photo: Lakruwan Wanniarachchi