T20 World Cup 2022: Virat Kohli becomes first Indian player to amass 1000 runs in event's history

Former India captain Virat Kohli achieved yet another milestone in his cricketing career during India’s T20 World Cup game against South Africa, on October 30, 2022, as he became the first Indian cricketer to score 1000 runs across all editions of the T20 World Cup. With this feat, Kohli also became only the second player to do so after Sri Lankan legend Mahela Jayawardene.

After scoring two back-to-back half-centuries in the first two games of the tournament, Kohli could not leave an impact in the third game against the Proteas. But in the 12 runs that he scored off 11 deliveries at Perth, he managed to surpass the 1000-run mark before being dismissed by Proteas pacer Lungi Ngidi.

Kohli achieved the feat in just 24 matches and he has now accumulated 1001 runs from just 22 innings, at an average of 83.41. Though he hasn’t bagged a T20 World Cup century, he has notched up 12 half-centuries. Jayawardene remains to be the leading run-scorer of the T20 World Cups with 1016 runs from 31 matches.

Kohli is now on the verge of surpassing Jayawardene and needs to get just 16 more runs to become the leading run-scorer in the T20 World Cups. Amongst the other players who have participated in the ongoing T20 World Cup in Australia, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma is behind Virat Kohli with 919 runs and has the chance to become the second Indian player to surpass the 1000-run mark.

King Kohli finds his mojo back

Kohli has been in tremendous form of late, ever since the Asia Cup 2022 where he claimed his maiden T20I century while playing against Afghanistan. In the first game of the T20 World Cup 2022 against arch-rivals Pakistan, Kohli smashed an unbeaten 53-ball 82* and led India from the front as the Men in Blue clinched a victory in the final over.

He continued his good form in the next game against the Netherlands as his unbeaten 44-ball 62*, alongside half-centuries from skipper Rohit Sharma and in-form Suryakumar Yadav helped India post a big target of 180 runs, which later helped them win the game as well.

Click here to know the T20 World Cup Points Table and T20 World Cup Schedule updates