Brian Bennett, the youngest best batsman for Zimbabwe in the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, has finished the tournament with one of the most remarkable records in the history of the T20 World Cup. He has left behind former Indian legend Virat Kohli in this list.
Zimbabwe has surprised the game’s stalwarts with some of its latest talents. They defeated the mighty Australian team in the competition and then achieved a spectacular victory over the Lankans on their home soil. He also challenged the Indians in the Super-8 match. For the first time under the leadership of Sikandar Raza, they reached the Super 8.
Brian Bennett’s brilliant debut in ICC T20 World Cup
Brian Bennett is a 22-year-old youngster who has been a sporadic talent for lackluster Zimbabwe, who has wreaked havoc in this World Cup by defeating some of the most powerful teams like Australia and Sri Lanka.
The Zimbabwean opening batsman also reshaped the format of T20I cricket with his unique playing style. The batsman did not hit his first six of the tournament until the game against India, and then hit a haul of 7 sixes to end the tournament.
Starting with 48* against Oman, he scored two consecutive half-centuries against Australia and Sri Lanka. After an early dismissal against the West Indies, he made a comeback against India, where he missed out on a century in the T20 World Cup.
Brian Bennett surpasses Virat Kohli’s record in T20 World Cup
Interestingly, this was Brian Bennett’s World Cup debut and he scored 292 runs at an average of 146 and a strike rate of almost 130+. With three half-centuries in the competition, he would finish as one of the top 5 scorers in the World Cup.
He was out only on two of the six occasions he played between them in the T20 World Cup, against the Windies and South Africa, without making any significant contributions to the scoreboard.
With an incredible average of 146, he has surpassed Virat Kohli’s record on three previous occasions. Virat Kohli held the record of highest average in 2016, 2014 and 2022.
Highest batting average in ICC T20 World Cup (minimum 200 runs)
- 146.00 – ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ (2026)*
- 136.50 – Virat Kohli (2016)
- 106.33 – Virat Kohli (2014)
- 98.66 – Virat Kohli (2022)
- 89.66 – Jos Buttler (2021)
At just 22, Brian Bennett scored 292 runs at an incredible average of 146.00 in the 2026 T20 World Cup!
This is now the highest average by any player in a single T20 World Cup tournament, surpassing Virat Kohli’s previous record!
Highest batting average in T20WC
(Minimum 200โฆ pic.twitter.com/IOvtogu54V– ๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ (@Shebas_10dulkar) 1 March 2026
Pakistan’s Sahibzada Farhan broke Virat Kohli’s run scoring record yesterday.
Virat Kohli held the record of scoring the most runs in the previous editions of the ICC T20 World Cup. He scored 319 runs in the 2014 edition, a long-standing record in the history of the competition for 12 years.
Having batted in 6 matches, Kohli’s record still stands as a masterclass as he led his team to the World Cup final; However, Farhan, who also played six matches and scored 383 runs, could not take his team to the semi-finals of the competition.
The Pakistani batsman also became the first cricketer to score two centuries in the World Cup in the shortest format of the game.
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