Phil Salt surpassed the record for the most runs scored in a bilateral men’s T20I series for a full member side during the final match of the series between England and the West Indies in Tarouba.

Salt is only the second player to score more than 300 runs in a men’s bilateral T20I series, and the first to do so in fewer than six matches. All of the top five names have entered the list since 2021, two of them doing so in the same series. Here’s a look, in ascending order, at the top five.

5. Quinton de Kock vs West Indies (2021)

5 matches, 255 runs at 51.00, SR: 141.66, HS: 72

De Kock’s performance came in South Africa’s 2021 five-match series in the Caribbean, which the Proteas won in a decider. Astonishingly, he scored more than two thirds of his runs in the latter three matches of the series after a slow start. He hit a 24-ball 37 in South Africa’s opening loss before following up with a 20-ball 26 in the second. However, he then went on a run of three consecutive half-centuries to make up his 255 runs, in a series where South Africa never broke 170 with the bat. His highest score was a 51-ball 72 in the third match of the series in Grenada.

4. Babar Azam vs England (2022)

7 matches, 285 runs at 57.00, SR: 143.21, HS: 110*

Babar is the first of two entries from the same series in the top five, however, given that his runs came in a rare seven-match long series that isn’t massively surprising. England returned to Pakistan for the first time since 2005 in 2022, in one of the most enthralling bilateral T20I series ever played. There was huge pressure on Pakistan’s top order, and Babar in particular to perform given their fragile middle and lower order. His outstanding performance of the series was an unbeaten 110 in the second game, in which Pakistan chased down 200 and won by ten wickets. Theirs was the third-biggest men’s T20I partnership ever for a full member side. His other innings of note in the series was a 59-ball 87 in the sixth T20I which set-up a series decider.

3. Mark Chapman vs Pakistan (2023)

5 matches, 290 runs at 290.00, SR: 165.71, HS: 104*

Chapman’s average from New Zealand’s series in Pakistan earlier this year is the highest-ever in a men’s bilateral series. After the first match in which New Zealand were bowled out for 94, Chapman wasn’t dismissed in any of his four following innings, amassing 290 runs overall. In the final match of the series, which New Zealand needed to win to secure a drawn result, he hit 104 to see the Black Caps chase down 194, and scored a maiden T20I century.

2. Mohammed Rizwan vs England (2022)

6 matches, 316 runs at 63.20, SR: 138.59, HS: 88*

Rizwan is the only player apart from Salt to have scored more than 300 runs in a bilateral men’s T20I series, but he did so with one extra innings. He was at the other end for Babar’s previously mentioned century, finishing unbeaten on 88 of 51 balls and scored another 88 in the fourth ODI to set-up a three-run win. All in all he passed 50 three times in the series and sat out the penultimate match.

1. Phil Salt vs West Indies (2023)

5 matches, 331 runs at 82.75, SR: 185.95, HS: 119

Salt now heads the list following his consecutive centuries in the Caribbean. He is only the second player from a full member nation to score back-to-back hundreds in men’s T20Is, and he now has the first and third biggest scores in a men’s T20I innings for England. His 119 in Tarouba came at a strike rate of 208.77, and powered England to a 75-run win. It also contributed to England smashing their highest-ever innings total in a men’s T20I, as they powered to 267-3, which is also the fifth-highest ever for all countries.

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