If Virat Kohli gets to the milestone on Saturday against Afghanistan at the ICC World Cup 2019, he will eclipse Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara’s record quite convincingly. Even if he doesn’t accomplish that in the next game, he still has lot of time to beat the record
Southampton: India captain Virat Kohli could break another record owned by Sachin Tendulkar. The skipper has a chance to go past Tendulkar and Brian Lara at the ongoing ICC World Cup 2019.
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As India get ready to face Afghanistan today (June 22) in Southampton, the 30-year-old Kohli has a chance to become the fastest to score 20,000 international runs. Recently, he was the quickest to the 11,000 runs club in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
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Kohli will enter the Afghanistan game at Rose Bowl, needing 104 to reach the 20,000-run landmark in international cricket, across formats. So far in his illustrious career, he has amassed 19,896 runs from 415 innings (374 matches — 77 Tests, 230 ODIs, 67 T20Is).
If Kohli gets to the milestone on Saturday against Afghanistan, he will eclipse Tendulkar and Lara’s record quite convincingly. Even if he doesn’t accomplish that in the next game, he still has a lot of time to beat the record.
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Both Tendulkar and Lara took 453 visits to the crease to aggregate 20,000 international runs. Now, Kohli is set to go past both the legends in a convincing manner. He will become the 12th to the landmark and third Indian after Tendulkar (34,357 runs) and Rahul Dravid (24,208 runs).
Against Pakistan on June 16, Kohli became the quickest to reach the 11,000-run mark in ODIs. He got there in 222 innings, 54 less than Tendulkar, who held the previous record.
Kohli, who made his international debut, in an ODI, against Sri Lanka in August, 2008, has so far shattered several records in both limited overs and Test cricket. He is leading India for the first time at the senior World Cup. Earlier, in 2008, he had led the Under-19 team to World Cup glory.
In the ongoing World Cup he has scores of 18 (against South Africa), 82 (Australia) and 77 (Pakistan) as India remain unbeaten in the 10-team tournament. India are one of the favourites to win the World Cup 2019.
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