Indian skipper Virat Kohli has been phenomenal in the South African series so far. In the ODIs, he broke all the old records becoming the first ever batsman to score more than 500 runs in a bilateral series. And now, with the last T20I game on February 24 in Cape Town, he is all set to reach another feat. Though his bat remained silent in the previous two games, he is just 17 runs short of becoming the first Indian batsman to get 2,000 runs in the shortest format of international cricket.
Virat Kohli has represented India in a total of 57 T20Is and has scored 1,983 runs at an average of 50.85. He has 18 half-centuries in his name, he is yet to score a ton in this format of cricket. He will also be the third international cricketer to do so after former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum [ 2,140 runs in 71 matches; Avg – 35.66] and his teammate Martin Guptill [2,271 runs in 75 matches; Avg: 35.66].
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Both the Kiwi batting sensations have scored at least a century in this format but Kohli holds a higher strike rate than both of them. Kohli’s strike-rate 137.32, while Guptill has a rate of 132.88 and McCullum’s is 136.21.
Despite a poor performance by the team in the Test series, Kohli remained the highest run scorer with 286 runs in his kitty. He also became the highest scorer in the ODIs. In the previous two T20Is, Kohli managed to score 27 runs in total (27+1) which takes his aggregate to 870 on the South African soil.
If he manages to score a century in the last T20I in Cape Town and end up scoring 130 runs, he will not only get his first T20I century but also become second to Sir Vivian Richards to score 1000 or more runs in an international tour. Sir Richards scored 1045 runs in the tour to England back in 1976. [829 runs in Tests and 216 runs in ODIs]
