India’s lowest score in T20 cricket: 74 against Australia, and the 76 that nearly beat it

That innings lasted 17.3 overs and nobody except Irfan Pathan reached double figures. It has stood as the record for eighteen years, and it was nearly beaten in July 2026, when England bowled India out for 76 at Trent Bridge.

India’s lowest T20I totals

The ten lowest completed innings India have batted in a Twenty20 international.

Score	Overs	Opposition	Venue	Date	Result
74	17.3	Australia	Melbourne	1 Feb 2008	Lost
76	11.4	England	Nottingham	7 Jul 2026	Lost
79	18.1	New Zealand	Nagpur	15 Mar 2016	Lost
81/8	20.0	Sri Lanka	Colombo (RPS)	29 Jul 2021	Lost
92	17.2	South Africa	Cuttack	5 Oct 2015	Lost
101	18.5	Sri Lanka	Pune	9 Feb 2016	Lost
102	19.5	Zimbabwe	Harare	6 Jul 2024	Lost
110/7	20.0	New Zealand	Dubai	31 Oct 2021	Lost
111	18.5	South Africa	Ahmedabad	22 Feb 2026	Lost
118/8	20.0	South Africa	Nottingham	16 Jun 2009	Lost

India have lost all ten. The lowest total they have defended in a full twenty-over match is 119, against Pakistan in New York at the 2024 T20 World Cup, and that sits twelfth on the full list.

What counts as a low total, and what does not

The table above counts only innings that finished — all out, or twenty overs batted. That matters more in T20 than in any other format, because a side chasing a small target stops batting the moment it wins.

Sort India’s T20I innings by runs alone and the top of the list is 15 for 0 against West Indies at Lauderhill in August 2016, an innings of two overs in a match washed out by rain. Below it sit 28 for 2, 47 for 2 and 49 for 1, all of them either abandoned or comfortable wins. None of those is a batting failure, and a list that includes them is measuring rain and short chases rather than collapses.

76 all out at Trent Bridge, July 2026

England made 201 for 7 in the third T20I of the series, Phil Salt carving 70 from 44 balls and Sam Curran finishing unbeaten on 41 from 24. India were bowled out for 76 in 11.4 overs.

Josh Tongue took 4 for 28 and Jofra Archer 3 for 29, the pair sharing seven wickets. Five India wickets were gone inside the first six overs. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi top-scored with 13, the only batter to settle.

The 125-run margin is India’s heaviest T20I defeat by runs, and the innings is their second lowest. It came in Shreyas Iyer’s first summer as T20I captain.

74 all out at Melbourne, 2008

India’s lowest T20I total came in a one-off match on the 2007-08 tour of Australia, four months after they had won the inaugural World Twenty20.

They lost Virender Sehwag in the first over and were five down for 32 inside the powerplay. Irfan Pathan made 26 from 30 balls; the next-best scores were nine each from Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni. Only Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma hit a boundary, and nobody hit a six. Nathan Bracken took three wickets at an economy of 4.40 and Adam Voges two in as many overs; no Australia bowler went at more than six an over. Australia won by nine wickets with 52 balls to spare.

Dhoni, then captain, said afterwards: “Somewhere in the middle, they forgot their roles and responsibilities in the team. We lost too many early wickets, and in the middle overs it was really hard to determine whether to go after the bowlers or just rotate the strike, because on a wicket like this you cannot really defend 120 runs.”

The other three under 100

79 against New Zealand at Nagpur, March 2016 — India’s lowest total at a T20 World Cup, and India’s first match of the tournament they were hosting. Chasing 127, they were bowled out in 18.1 overs. Mitchell Santner took 4 for 11 and Ish Sodhi three. Virat Kohli made 23 and Dhoni 30; nobody else passed ten.

81 for 8 against Sri Lanka at Colombo, July 2021 — a full twenty overs for 81, the only innings on this list where India batted out their overs and still finished under 100.

92 against South Africa at Cuttack, October 2015 — bowled out in 17.2 overs at home.

For the other end of the scale, see our list of India’s highest ODI totals and the highest team totals in men’s T20 cricket.

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Featured photo: Lakruwan Wanniarachchi