Virat Kohli becomes first cricketer to score 9000 international runs as captain

To put Kohli’s achievement in perspective, no cricketer could even manage scored 8000 international runs as captain. Brian Lara is the second best with 7000 international runs captain in 159 innings. Kohli took the same number of innings to score 9000 runs.

Indian captain Virat Kohli added another feather to his illustrious cap on Tuesday during the second India vs Australia ODI at the Vidarbha Cricket Association's stadium in Jamtha, Nagpur. Kohli, who scored his 40^th hundred in ODI cricket also became the first to reach 9000 international runs as captain.

Kohli reached the milestone in 159 innings. To put Kohli’s achievement in perspective, no cricketer could even manage scored 8000 international runs as captain. Brian Lara is the second best with 7000 international runs captain in 159 innings. Kohli took the same number of innings to score 9000 runs. Kohli has 4515 runs in 76 innings as captain Test matches, 4133 runs in 64 innings at an average of 82.77 in ODIs and 606 runs in 21 innings in T20Is at a strike rate of 142.92.

Kohli’s career average in ODIs is 59.73, meaning he has started to perform even better after taking over the captaincy from Kohli.

Kohli scored 116 off 120 balls to almost single-handedly take India to 250. Pat Cummins was the star with the ball for Australia. He picked up four wickets for 29 runs in 9 overs. But the real damage was done by Adam Zampa who dismissed Kedar Jadhav and MS Dhoni off successive balls in 33^rd over to push India on the backfoot.

Thanks to Kohli, India were able to reach 250. He walked into the middle after Rohit Sharma was dismissed for a duck in the very first over of the match by Pat Cummins. Right from the onset, he looked positive. He started off his innings with a gorgeous straight drive of Nathan Coulter-Nile and ended up hitting 10 fours. Interestingly, Kohli did not hit a six in his innings.

Apart from Kohli, Vijay Shankar made a crucial contribution of 46 off 41 balls for India. He put on 81 runs for the fourth wicket with Kohli but was unfortunately run out while backing up when Zampa was bowling.

India lead the five-match series 1-0.