Connor Carroll has broken his second T20I world record in three days. The Croatia opener scored 95 against Cyprus on Friday to take his tally across four innings to 390 runs, the highest ever recorded in any four consecutive innings in men’s T20I cricket, surpassing the previous record of 373 set by Frenchman Gustav Mckeon. His career average stands at 130 and his strike rate at 201.03.
Carroll’s four scores since making his debut for Croatia in the Men’s T20 World Cup Sub Regional Europe Qualifier A read 71, 150 not out, 74 and 95. What makes the sequence even more remarkable is that he is only the second batter in history, alongside Mckeon, to begin a men’s T20I career with four consecutive fifty-plus scores.
His debut came against France at Episkopi, where he struck 71 off 34 balls even as the rest of his teammates combined for just 55 runs in an unsuccessful chase of 209. Against Switzerland in the following match, he batted first and produced an unbeaten 150 in a team total of 199, helping Croatia win by 16 runs. He then made 74 against Jersey in a losing chase of 281 before Friday’s 95 helped Croatia beat Cyprus by seven runs.
Carroll is now one of 15 players to register four consecutive fifty-plus scores in men’s T20I cricket. Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza remains the only player to have made five in a row, and Carroll has the chance to equal that record when Croatia face Austria in the fifth-place playoff. Should he reach fifty against Austria, he would also become the first batter in history to begin a men’s T20I career with five consecutive fifty-plus scores.
Coincidentally, Mckeon’s record-breaking run of scores also came in his first four innings, making the parallel between the two players one of the more curious footnotes in the short format’s history.
