Stats: Virat Kohli becomes the fastest batsman to complete 12000 ODI runs

India and Australia are currently involved in the third and final ODI of the three-match series at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. The visitors have already lost a series with two consecutive losses in Sydney and will be keen on putting their best foot forward in the final game and rest of the tour. Their skipper Virat Kohli also will be looking to lead from the front and the man has already created a few records on the tour.

In the second ODI, he slammed 89 runs in the steep chase and in the process, completed 22000 runs in international runs. It goes without saying that he was the fastest to the milestone surpassing the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. And in Canberra, the 32-year-old once again went past Sachin when he reached 23 while batting. Virat Kohli completed a mammoth 12000 runs in One-Day Internationals during his 242nd innings.

He is playing the 251st ODI of his career and has an average close to 60 with 43 centuries 59 half-centuries. Sachin Tendulkar had reached the milestone in his 300th ODI innings 17 years ago and was the first to do so as well.

Ricky Ponting is third in the list

Ricky Ponting was the second man to get to 12000 runs in the 50-over format and he did it in his 323rd ODI in 2009. He is now moved to the third position in the charts thanks to Virat Kohli who has gone past him quite comfortably. The next three players in this list are all from Sri Lanka and the trio is the definitely the best set of players to ever play for them.

Kumar Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya and Mahela Jayawardene are those players all of whom are now retired from international cricket. Sangakkara was the quickest among them getting to the milestone in 336 innings. However, Virat Kohli has trumped all of them thanks to his unreal consistency in the format and with age in his hands, Sachin Tendulkar’s aggregate career score in the ODIs is also under threat.

It will be interesting to see if the Indian captain will be able to score a mammoth 18000 runs before hanging his boots from the format.

Fastest batsmen to 12000 ODI runs