England star Jos Buttler surpassed Kieron Pollard as the all-time leading run-scorer in T20 history before backing Indian prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to eventually break his new record.
England star Jos Buttler became the highest run-scorer in T20 cricket history on August 5, 2026, overtaking West Indies legend Kieron Pollard. Following the milestone, Buttler tipped 15-year-old Indian batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi as the person most likely to surpass his mark one day.
Buttler climbed to the top of the T20 run charts playing for Manchester Super Giants (MSG) against Welsh Fire in the Men's Hundred, hitting a quickfire 51 off 20 balls with two fours and six sixes. In 522 T20 matches, Buttler now has 14,833 runs, featuring nine centuries and 105 fifties. He moves ahead of Pollard (14,803 runs in 746 matches) and long-time record-holder Chris Gayle (14,562 runs in 463 matches).
Speaking to Sky Sports after setting the record, Buttler expressed pride in his achievement while acknowledging it would eventually be topped. "It's really cool, actually, to think you've got the most T20 runs out of anyone. Someone will surpass it one day – and his name's probably [Vaibhav] Sooryavanshi – but it's a proud moment," Buttler said.
Buttler also admitted he had hoped to reach the record during MSG's previous game against MI London, where Pollard serves as head coach. "We played against MI London last game and it would have been nice to get past Polly while he was there sat in the dugout, but there's some great names on there, some special players, so I'm really proud of that," he added.
The 15-year-old Sooryavanshi recently delivered a standout performance in T20I cricket, scoring 151 runs across three matches against Zimbabwe to claim the Player of the Series award in a 3-0 clean sweep for India. Earlier in the year, he scored 439 runs in the ICC Men's Under-19 Cricket World Cup, earning Player of the Tournament honors.
In the match context, Welsh Fire opted to bat first at Manchester, reaching 155/4 in 100 balls behind knocks from Matt Short (71 off 47) and Phil Salt (48 off 37). MSG chased the total down with nine wickets in hand, powered by Tim Seifert (62 off 36), Paul Walter (37 off 18), and Buttler's unbeaten 51.
Reporting sourced from The Hindu Sport. Photo courtesy The Hindu Sport.