India vs West Indies: Shimron Hetmyer becomes highest six-hitter in T20 World Cup 2026

Shimron Hetmyer has been a revelation in T20 World Cup 2026 for West Indies. Not too long ago, the left-hander was batting lower down the order and doing finishing duties in international cricket. Clearly, he always had a much better potential than that and Nicholas Pooran's shock retirement allowed Hetmyer to be promoted into the top order.

Hetmyer has been in rollicking form in this T20 World Cup, storming into the top five run getters of the tournament. Amongst those top five batters, his strike rate is comfortably the highest. What has stood out in Hetmyer's game is his nonchalance and aggression to keep the tempo high during the middle overs.

At the time of publishing this article, Hetmyer has hit 19 sixes in T20 World Cup 2026, going past Sahibzada Farhan (18) to top the charts for six-hitting in the tournament. The southpaw started the game at 17 maximums for the tournament and hit sixes off Hardik Pandya and Varun Chakaravarthy to top the list.

It was a solid start for West Indies after being put into bat on a dry Eden Gardens surface. The black soil pitch meant that dew would have an absolute say in the game, which is why Suryakumar Yadav opted to field. West Indies made a surprising move by getting Roston Chase to open with skipper Shai Hope.

This move was because Akeal Hosein was drafted in at the expense of the out-of-form opener Brandon King, which meant that someone had to do the makeshift opener's role for the Windies. Due to his ability to hit the gaps and play spin well, Chase was assigned the role and the batting all-rounder responded well in style.

West Indies need a total of around 190-200 to compete in this fixture, because dew will have a big say in India's run chase. However, Hetmyer has just departed against the run of play, trapped LBW by Jasprit Bumrah. It wasn't given on-field and India reviewed successfully to get West Indies' in-form batter.