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IPL 2019: Virat Kohli eyes twin records in opener against Chennai Super Kings
Apart from a statement win against the defending champions — which will be Kohli’s main priority in Chennai — the star batsman will look to add a couple of personal milestones in his kitty as well.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli will look to add a fresh feather into his already-illustrious cap when his team lock horns against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) opener on Saturday.
Apart from a statement win against the defending champions — which will be Kohli’s main priority in Chennai — the star batsman will look to add a couple of personal milestones in his kitty as well.
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So far, Kohli has scored 4948 runs in the cash-rich league and he stands at the second spot in the list of most runs scored by a player in the history of the competition. He needs just 37 runs to topple CSK’s Suresh Raina in this particular chart, who has 4985 runs to his name.
Not to forget that Raina will also be taking to the field in the opener and it will be interesting to see which of the two will come out on top as far as the leading run-getters list is concerned.
Apart from this, Kohli is also on the verge of equalling David Warner’s record of most 50+ scores in the IPL. Warner has went past the 50-run mark 39 times in the league and Kohli takes the second spot with 38 such scores.
So, if Kohli manages to score a half-century against Chennai, it is likely that he will become the leading run-getter in the IPL and also take the joint-top spot along side the Australian in the aforementioned list.
Despite these personal achievements to spur him further, Kohli’s top priority will be to end his title drought with RCB. Kohli’s India teammates MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma have already managed to win the competition three times each but the current India captain is yet to open his account.
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“There are people who have won the trophy three times. MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. So I think he has a long way to go. You cannot compare him to someone like Rohit or Dhoni at this stage,” two-time IPL winning captain Gautam Gambhir had earlier said.
“He has been a part of RCB, and captaining RCB for the last seven to eight years, and he has been very lucky and should be thanking the franchise that they stuck with him. Because not many captains have got such a long rope where they haven’t won a tournament.”
