India vs Australia: Virat Kohli becomes 8th batsman to score 22,000 runs in international cricket

Virat Kohli looked in great form on Friday against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The Indian skipper has been on a tear for the past 6-7 years, scoring a plethora of runs while winning matches for his team. The format doesn’t even matter as Kohli is one of the top scorers in all the formats of the game. However, it is in ODI cricket that Kohli has been incredibly prolific.

He looked set to score his 44th ODI century but fell just 11 runs short of the mark. But nonetheless, Kohli still achieved a massive feat in his international career. Virat Kohli completed 22,000 runs in his international career when he hit the score of 86. Kohli has become the 8th batsman in the history of cricket to reach 22,000 runs.

Kohli took 418 matches and 462 innings to reach the landmark. Sachin Tendulkar currently heads the list with 34357 runs in 664 matches, followed by Kumar Sangakkar who has 28,016 runs.

Kohli now has 11,977 runs in ODIs, 7,240 in Tests, and 2,794 in T20Is.

He continued to pile on the runs in India in the ODI series in Australia as he smashed 89 runs at the SCG. Kohli is now just six centuries away from Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most hundreds in the 50-over format. Kohli has scored 43 tons in 249 matches at an outstanding average of more than 59. Kohli is now just 23 runs away from completing 12,000 runs in ODIs and can achieve the feat in the third ODI against Australia.

He will become the sixth cricketer to reach this landmark in ODIs while being the first cricketer to achieve this feat in less than 300 innings. He is also now on the verge of equalling Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of 9 centuries against Australia in ODIs.