Indian skipper Virat Kohli, who has been creating and breaking records for fun in the last few years, got another world record under his belt on Friday as he became the quickest skipper in international cricket to reach 11,000 runs as captain. The right-hander became the second Indian and the sixth international leader to complete 11,000 runs across formats.
The Delhi cricketer got to the feat in the 13th over of the third and final T20I between India and Sri Lanka that was played at Pune. He got a single off Lakshan Sandakan to achieve the record. Kohli accomplished the achievement in only 196 innings, breaking the record of former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting, who had taken 252 innings to get to 11,000 runs as skipper.
The other captains who have managed to cross the 11,000-run mark as the leader of their respective sides are New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming, MS Dhoni,. Allan Border and South African Graeme Smith.
Fastest to reach 11000 international runs as captain
Virat Kohli – 196 innings
Ricky Ponting – 252 innings
Graeme Smith – 264 innings
Allan Border – 316 innings
MS Dhoni – 324 innings
Stephen Fleming – 333 innings
The Indian team, meanwhile had a good outing in the two games against Sri Lanka, after the first match at Guwahati had been washed out due to persistent rain. The Indians won convincingly at Indore and then at Pune to win yet another home series trophy. With it, their home season in the T20I format came to an end, and they will now gear up to face Australia for a three game ODI series that commences from January 14 at Mumbai. The remaining two games will be played at Rajkot and Bengaluru.
Following the series, the Men in Blue will travel to New Zealand for a full six-week tour that will also have a Test series. Hardik Pandya is expected to be fit for the white-ball cricket series in New Zealand.