Sports

Virat Kohli fastest to 15,000 international runs

Virat Kohli celebrated his milestone 50th T20 international by reaching 15,000 international runs in just 304 matches and becoming the fastest to do so as India played Sri Lanka in the lone T20 international at Colombo on Wednesday, reports India Today.

Kohli became the 33rd player to reach 15,000 runs and the only one with an average of above 50.

Kohli also became the third-highest run-scorer in T20Is after he scored his 17th fifty in the shortest format.

Initially fifth on the list of most runs in T20 internationals, Virat Kohli toppled Afghanistan's Mohammad Shahzad when he added 32 runs to his tally and then overhauled Martin Guptill's 1806 runs as he touched 59 runs to reach 1807*. The India captain remains behind Tillakaratne Dilshan (1889 runs) and Brendon McCullum (2140 runs).

With the kind of form that Kohli is in and considering that both McCullum and Dilshan have retired, the India captain has a strong chance of topping the list soon.

The India captain also became only the fourth player to notch up a half-century in his 50th T20I -- the others being Dilshan, Eoin Morgan and Shahid Afridi.

Last Sunday, Kohli notched up his 30th ODI ton during India's chase of 239 runs against Sri Lanka in the fifth and last game of the series at the same ground.

With the landmark, Kohli is now joint-second with Ricky Ponting on the list of most ODI hundreds behind Sachin Tendulkar (49). While Ponting finished with 30 hundreds from 375 matches, Kohli reached his 30th ton in only 195 matches.

Kohli walked in to bat at No. 3 after Rohit Sharma edged off Lasith Malinga's delivery and Thisara Perera caught it on mid on. The India captain took control of one end and smashed 5 fours and one six to reach the milestone.

Kohli has been in a sensational form since the beginning of 2016, hammering runs across formats. In the 20 T20Is that the India captain has played since last year, he has scored 749 runs at an average of 74.90.