Daily Times

India vs Australia, 3rd ODI: Virat Kohli looked in fine touch on Wednesday morning at the Manuka Oval as he got to another landmark in ODI cricket. He becomes the fastest in the history of the sport to get to 12,000 ODI runs.

India might have already lost the ongoing ODI series against Australia but skipper Virat Kohli is no mood to stop getting to milestones and landmarks that he is used to. After getting to 22,000 international runs in Sydney on Sunday, Virat Kohli has become the fastest batsman to get to 12,000 ODI runs.

Virat has broken Sachin Tendulkar’s record for the fastest to 12,000 runs in the 50-over format of the game. Kohli needed 23 runs to get to the landmark and he had no trouble reaching the milestone in his 251st ODI. Kohli has 43 hundreds and 59 fifties and averages close to 60 in a format that he has dominated over the years.

Fastest to get to 12,000 ODI runs

Virat Kohli – 251 matches

Sachin Tendulkar – 309 matches

Ricky Ponting – 323 matches

Kumar Sangakkara – 359 matches

Sanath Jayasuriya – 390 matches

Virat Kohli has been in decent form in the ongoing ODI series. He was looking sharp in the series opener in Sydney but was dismissed for 21. However, the skipper hit a solid 89 in the second match, showcasing the wide array of strokes but his efforts were not enough for India in their mammoth chases of 375 and 390. Kohli was struggling to get going in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as he returned to competitive break after the enforced break due to the pandemic. But the Royal Challengers Bangalore found his range as the tournament progressed, hitting 466 runs in 15 matches.

2020 hasn’t been a good year for Virat Kohli as India captain as the Asian giants have lost 5 back-to-back ODIs — 3 in New Zealand and 2 in Australia. He might become the first India captain since Sunil. Virat Kohli has also not hit an international hundred in 2020 and it will be the first time since his debut in 2008 that the Delhi batsman will finish without an ODI hundred in a calendar year. Kohli has not gotten to the three-figure mark since the day-night Test against Bangladesh in November 2019.