Dubai: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli is just 10 runs shy of becoming the first Indian batsman to hit 9000 runs in T20 cricket. The India captain, who returned to form with a brilliant half-century in their last match, will be leading RCB against Delhi Capitals on Monday (October 5).
Kohli hasn’t had the best of the starts with the bat in this season of the IPL even though RCB have won three out of four games they have played to be placed third in the IPL points table. Before the game against Rajasthan Royals, Kohli had scores of 14, 1 and 3 in his first three innings and not hit even a single boundary.
However, against Rajasthan, he roared back to form with an unbeaten 72 off 53 to lead a successful chase of 155 in Abu Dhabi. His innings was laced with seven fours and two sixes. In the IPL too, Kohli is the leading run-getter with 5,502 runs in 181 matches so far. He has hit five centuries and 37 fifties.
In the list of all-time leading run-getters in T20 history, Kohli is at the seventh spot which is led by West Indian Chris Gayle (13,296 runs in 404 matches) followed by Kieron Pollard (10,370 runs in 517 matches). Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik completes the top-three with 9926 runs in 392 matches.
Kohli also has 487 boundaries and 192 sixes in IPL so far to his name. If he hits six more sixes, Kohli will become the 6th player in IPL history to do so. “It’s a funny game you know. It’s an amazing game,” Kohli had said. “I was telling Jos Buttler when I was batting in there, ‘I love this game and I hate it too’.”
