India vs New Zealand: In-form KL Rahul clinches another milestone in his T20 career

KL Rahul completed 4,000 runs in T20 cricket on Friday during India's ongoing fourth T20I against New Zealand in Wellington.

Ahead of the match, Rahul was eight runs away from the milestone, which he achieved with his innings of 39 runs from 26 balls. His knock was inclusive of two sixes and three boundaries.

Among the batters who have 2,000 runs or more in the shortest format, Rahul has the second-best average (42.10*) after Pakistan's Babar Azam (42.60).

Rahul, who has been in a fine form with the bat over the last few weeks, is also the sixth-highest run-scorer for India in T20Is after Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan. Going into the Wellington match, Rahul's last five T20I scores read - 45, 54, 56, 57* and 27.

The Indian opener, meanwhile, also overtook New Zealand captain Kane Williamson in the runs chart in the ongoing five-match T20I series. Rahul has scored 179 runs in four innings. Williamson, who was forced to withdraw from the fourth match due to a shoulder injury, has 160 runs from three games.

New Zealand's stand-in-skipper Tim Southee won the toss and put India to bat.

"We would have bowled first as well. We have rested Rohit, Shami and Jadeja. Samson to open, Washington and Saini are in. Three exciting additions to the side," Indian captain Kohli said at the toss.

With the five-match series already won, India made a few changes for the dead-rubber fourth game on Friday. They rested the likes of their Super Over stars from the previous match - Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami - along with Ravindra Jadeja and replaced them with Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar and Navdeep Saini.