Fast and furious: Five batsmen who reached 1000 ODI runs in least deliveries

Hardik Pandya has had a decent start to the Australian tour as he smashed a 75-ball 90 in the first ODI where India fell 66 runs short of the home team’s total. It was a reflection of how well Hardik has paced his scoring in the ODI format where his strike rate is well over 110. Pandya, during the first ODI, became the 13th Indian with 1000+ runs and 50+ wickets as he completed 1000 runs in the format in his 39th innings.

Hardik Pandya had faced only 857 balls to complete 1000 runs in ODI cricket which made him the fastest Indian to the milestone in terms of balls faced. The Indian record was on the name of Kedar Jadhav who needed 937 balls to complete 1000 ODI runs. Hardik, in fact, is at No.5 in the list of batsmen fastest to 1000 ODI runs in terms of balls to spare. The all-time record is held by none other than Andre Russell who needed 767 balls only.

Russell is also the only player to face less than 800 balls before getting to 1000 ODI runs. Luke Ronchi is placed 2nd in the list as he needed 807 balls for 1000 ODI runs which he scored representing Australia and New Zealand. The list is also an indicator of how Shahid Afridi used to deal while batting in the limited-overs. The Pakistan all-rounder needed just 834 balls to reach 1000 runs in the ODI format which stood as a record until Russell and Ronchi surpassed him only in the last decade.

All-rounder Corey Anderson took 854 balls to get there; only three balls fewer than what Pandya needed. Among the top ten players who are fastest to 1000 ODI runs in terms of balls faced, only Shimron Hetmyer has scored runs on a consistent basis. The West Indies batsman needed only 28 innings to reach the milestone and is also the 4th quickest batsman in terms of innings to get there for West Indies.

(Stats as on December 1, 2020)