RAWALPINDI: New Pakistan T20I captain Sahibzada Farhan has etched his name into the record books, finishing the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka with a staggering 238 runs — the most by any batter in a three-match T20I series between full-member nations.
The 89-run milestone innings he had already threatened, the consistency he has now delivered. Farhan’s aggregate of 238 eclipses the 229 runs Abhishek Sharma compiled against Afghanistan earlier in 2026, setting a new benchmark for bilateral T20I batting dominance.
What makes the achievement truly remarkable is the relentlessness of the scoring. Farhan struck 89 off 53 balls in the 1st T20I on October 9, followed it with 73 off 44 in the 2nd T20I on October 11, and closed with 76 off 47 in the final T20I at Rawalpindi on October 13. Three fifties in three innings — no Pakistani before him had managed the feat in a bilateral three-match T20I series.
He becomes only the eighth player overall to register 50-plus scores in all three games of a bilateral three-match T20I series, joining an elite club that includes Virat Kohli. For a player newly entrusted with the captaincy, it is about as emphatic a start to the leadership chapter as one could imagine.
Ironically, Farhan’s record-breaking knock of 76 came on a night Pakistan finished second-best. The hosts were restricted to 168 for 8 in their 20 overs, and Sri Lanka chased it down with comfort, winning by 8 wickets with 17 balls to spare. Kusal Mendis was the tormentor-in-chief, smashing an unbeaten 87 off 47 balls to claim the Player of the Match award.
The consolation win gave Sri Lanka something to take home, but the series was already Pakistan’s. With victories in the first two T20Is, the Men in Green sealed the rubber 2–1 — a series triumph that owed everything to their new skipper’s blade.
Farhan was unsurprisingly named Player of the Series, capping a fortnight in which he has looked a level above the rest. The numbers tell the story: 238 runs across three innings at a strike rate that kept Pakistan ahead of the game from the first ball of the series to the last.
For Sri Lanka, the final-night chase will offer some solace — Mendis’s unbeaten 87 showed what the visitors are capable of when their batting clicks. But the abiding image of this series will be Farhan, standing tall against the new ball and the old, piling up runs with the kind of serenity that marks a batter at the very peak of his powers.
Pakistan’s white-ball rebuild has found an early signature performance. If this is what the Farhan era looks like, the Men in Green — and their fans — will be watching the next series with genuine anticipation.
