‘Hats off to him’ – Gautam Gambhir lauds Virat Kohli for breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s 17-year-old record

India might not have won the ODI series against Australia, but skipper Virat Kohli had every reason to cheer, at least from the personal front. During the second ODI at the Sydney Cricket Ground, he completed 22,000 international runs, though his knock couldn’t help India chase down 390. Then in the third and final ODI, the right-hander got past Sachin Tendulkar’s record.

Virat became the fastest to accomplish 12,000 ODI runs at the Manuka Oval in Canberra after he notched 63 runs before getting out to Josh Hazlewood. Even as Virat touched the landmark in 241 innings, Sachin took 300 innings to achieve the same. In the meantime, former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir praised the Delhi-born for scaling greater heights.

Gambhir showers praise on Virat Kohli

“You can take anything, you can actually do whatever you want, but the best feeling in the world is when you score that last run and come back to your hotel room and you’re so satisfied that you’ve done something for your country, what you were meant to do,” Gambhir was quoted as saying on Star Sports Cricket Connected chat show.

“So probably, all those combinations have made him what he is, and hats off to him, he’s scored more than 20,000 runs, centuries all that,” he added.

Going by the standards Virat has set, it wasn’t an overly overwhelming year for the veteran. It was only his second year when he couldn’t score a single ODI century after 2008- the year when he made his international debut against Sri Lanka.

This was also the first time since 2008 that Kohli featured in less than 10 ODIs in a calendar year. However, he remains to be a vital cog in their setup, having scored tons and tons of runs with sheer authority across formats over the last 12 years or so.

Virat is currently gearing up for the three-match T20I series against the Aussies that is scheduled to start on Friday, December 4. The opening game will be played in Canberra. The fact that he has an average of over 50 even in T20Is shows how dominant he has been even in the shortest format.