Virat Kohli: At the summit of mount 20k
The league phase of the ICC World Cup 2019 is approaching its most crucial phase but it is business as usual for the Indian team captain Virat Kohli as he continues to be in good form with the bat while prolonging his amazing record-breaking march.
Fastest to scale 20k runs
During his matching-winning knock of 72 against West Indies at Manchester, Kohli crossed the 20000-run milestone in international cricket (comprising Tests, One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals) becoming the third Indian and twelfth overall in the history of the game to reach the mark.
The 37th run of his innings against the Caribbeans also made the Indian captain the fastest to reach the 20k summit. He bettered the record previously held jointly by the Maestro Sachin Tendulkar and the peerless Brian Lara by 36 innings.
Joining the league of legends
Among Indians, King Kohli joins the league of the finest Indian batting duo of Sachin and "The Wall" Rahul Dravid, both of whom piled up more than 20k runs during their illustrious cricketing careers.
Little Master Sachin, making an early debut at the age of 16, enjoyed one of the longest careers in international Cricket amassing 34357 runs in 782 innings. The "Everest" of runs included 15921 in Tests, 18426 in ODIs and 10 in the only T20I game Sachin played in his career which lasted for 24 years.
In comparison, Dravid who was born in the same year as Sachin, made his debut seven years later. But he was successful in making the most of his career spanning around 16 years, accumulating 24208 runs in 605 innings. The tally comprised of 13288 in Tests, 10889 in ODIs and 31 in the only shortest-format game he played.
Kohli who made his debut when both the legends were in the twilight of their careers, has been faster. It has taken just 417 innings to cross 20k run mark which includes 6613 in Tests, 11159 in ODIs and 2263 in T20Is.
The last one carries more significance as the scope of scoring runs is limited in T20Is compared to the longer formats. But the master of chases has been successful in scoring big in the shortest format as well. This has been a key to his record-breaking spree, the ability to adapt to each and every format and condition and score prolifically.
More records
Earlier in the tournament, in the match against arch-rivals Pakistan, Kohli became the fastest to scale 11000 runs in ODIs. Already owning a plethora of batting records, the Delhi dasher took just 222 innings compared to Sachin who had taken 276 innings to set the record.
Kohli also joined the league of Navjot Singh Sidhu and Sachin as well, in owning the Indian record of scoring 50+ runs in four consecutive innings at the World Cup. While Sidhu accomplished this feat first in 1987, Sachin emulated the same twice, in the 1996 and 2003 editions of the quadrennial event. His consistency and ability to improve on his prodigious talent at every step has contributed a lot to his awe-inspiring record.
In a different league
The star batsman, though yet to score a century in the ongoing event, has qualitatively been a class apart from the other Indian batsmen. The scores of 67 off 63 against Afghanistan and 72 off 82 against West Indies have come in tough batting conditions.
In those low-scoring games (when India batted first to post the totals of 224 and 268 respectively), when other batsmen found it difficult to score runs, the Indian captain was in his elements. The toughness of the surface couldn't hamper him in finding ways to score runs.
Kohli is enjoying his time at the Cricket carnival in role of captain as well. So far, India is the only team which has remained unbeaten in the tournament. The skipper has been able to marshal his troops well and been on top of the situation.
Indian fans would hope the batting form of Kohli and the winning run of the Indian team continue in the tournament and they would get to see the most coveted trophy come home for the third time on July 14th.
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