France's Gustav McKeon rewrites record books with back-to-back T20I tons

Just days after becoming the youngest man to score a T20I century, France's teenaged opener Gustav McKeon rewrote records books yet again by being the first batter to score back-to-back centuries in T20I cricket.

McKeon, playing just his third T20I, backed up his 61-ball 109 against Switzerland with a 101 off 53 balls against Norway at the 2024 T20 World Cup Europe Sub-Regional Qualifier Group B, in Finland, on Wednesday. His innings was laced with five fours and eight sixes, and he reached the landmark off just 51 balls with a six over deep midwicket.

McKeon almost single-handedly carried France's batting, taking his side to 158 for 8, with the next-best score being Lingeswaran Canessane's 15. If that wasn't enough, McKeon then turned on the screws with the ball, returning 3 for 27 with his right-arm medium pace as France prevailed by 11 runs. It came as no surprise that he was named Player of the match for his efforts.

With scores of 76, 109 and 101 in his first three outings, McKeon has had a sensational start to his T20I career. His run tally of 286 now stands atop the list for most runs scored by a batter in the first three innings of a men's T20I career. He broke the record of Portugal's Azhar Andani, who had scores of 46, 100 and 81 to tally 241 runs in his first three T20I innings last year. McKeon is comfortably the leading run-scorer in the tournament so far with a strike rate of 170.23 and an average of 95.33.

Thanks to McKeon's all-round show, France find themselves in second place on the Group 2 table with four points, only behind Norway, who are equal on points but ahead on net run-rate. France next play Estonia, who are yet to win a match so far in the tournament, on July 30.

The winner of the Europe Sub-Regional Qualifier will join Denmark, Italy, Jersey and Germany in the Europe Qualifier next year.