Virat Kohli, the most sensational, phenomenal and attacking batsman of this era, once again justified his name: “King Kohli”. Indian skipper, on Sunday did what he does best, anchoring a chase and taking India home in the second T20I against England in Ahmedabad.
As he hit the winning runs, he became the first batsman to make 3000 runs in men’s T20 International cricket. Kohli was already the leading scorer in the format in men’s cricket before the match.
Kohli’s knock of 73 runs, which came off 49 balls, also helped India to level the five-match T20I series in Ahmedabad after losing the opening game by eight wickets.
Notably, only two other cricketers have scored more than 3000 runs in the format – both in women’s cricket. Suzie Bates (3301 runs) of New Zealand and Stafanie Taylor (3062) of the West Indies are the others to achieve this feat.
Not just this, Kohli also became the third captain in international cricket to score 12000 runs as a captain. During the second T20I against England, Kohli joined legendary captains Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith in the elite list. The Indian captain achieved this feat after scoring his 17th run.
Ponting, who led Australia to twin ODI World Cup glories in 2003 and 2007 slammed 15440 runs as captain in international cricket. While Smith scored 14878 runs as South Africa’s skipper.
The Indian captain is right on top of the run-scoring chart in T20 internationals, with 3001 runs from 87 matches at an average of 50.86. He is followed by New Zealand opening batsman Martin Guptill, who has 2839 runs from 99 games at an average of 32.36. At No. 3 is Kohli’s deputy Rohit Sharma, with 2773 runs.
India had lost the first T20I by eight wickets with their batsmen failing to execute their plans of playing an aggressive brand of cricket.
However, in the second match they executed those plans perfectly as debutant Ishan Kishan made a fifty at the top of the order.
