India captain Virat Kohli crossed the 12000-run mark in the ODIs on Wednesday during the third ODI against Australia in Canberra. Kohli, before the start of the match, needed 23 runs more to achieve the feat. He reached the mark in the first ball of the 12th over when he took a single off pacer Sean Abbott.
Doing so, Kohli broke Sachin Tendulkar’s 17-year-old record of being the fastest player to register 12,000 ODI runs in career. Tendulkar had reached the mark in his 300th innings (341st ODI) when he had smashed a boundary against Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi at Centurion in 2003.
Kohli completed the feat in his 241st innings (251st ODI). Overall, Kohli is the sixth player in the list, only after Australia’s Ricky Ponting, Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara, Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya, and Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene.
Kohli will also be on the verge of equalling Sachin’s record of most ODI hundreds by an Indian player against Australia. If Kohli makes a ton, it will be his 9th ODI hundred against the Aussies.
India handed a debut to left-arm fast bowler T Natarjan in the 3rd ODI. Kohli won the toss and elected to bat first and announced that India have made four changes – Natarjan, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill, Shardul Thakur were included in place of Mayank Agarwal, Mohammed Shami, Yuzendra Chahal and Navdeep Saini.
“We will bat first. Looks a nice wicket and the last time we played here it was a really good wicket to bat on. Want to bat well and put the opposition under pressure. Need to improve the body language in the field and the bowling as well. It’s a result of us not being consistent in the last two games, we are gonna try a few things tonight and see how it goes,” Kohli said at the toss.
