Shafali Verma breaks calendar-year T20I run record

India opener Shafali Verma broke Laura Wolvaardt's record for most T20I runs in a calendar year during Tuesday's Asian Games final against Sri Lanka at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin, Japan. The 22-year-old scored 48 off 29 balls in the gold-medal match to reach 863 runs across 24 T20Is in 2026, surpassing Wolvaardt's 824. Verma also moved to fourth in the ICC Women's T20I batting rankings with 756 rating points. She scored her maiden T20I century in the semi-final against Bangladesh, becoming the first woman to score a century in Asian Games cricket. Her partnerships with Smriti Mandhana have now passed 4,000 runs in women's T20Is.