Stats: Virat Kohli becomes the first Indian to complete 7000 T20 runs

Virat Kohli was once tagged as an ordinary T20 cricketer in the country but he gradually ascended to become the best Indian batsman in the shortest format over the last couple of years. The 2016 Indian Premier League (IPL) gave a makeover to his numbers in the league and overall T20 format after a sensational World T20 where he was the only major performer with the bat for India. Kohli smashed a record four centuries in that IPL edition and scored close to 1000 runs as well.

With the help of a sensational 2016, the Indian captain surpassed the likes of Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir to become the leading run-getter in this format. On Saturday, Virat reached a new milestone in this format during the 2nd T20I against the New Zealand side at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot. The Indian skipper completed 7000 runs in Twenty20 cricket to become the first from India and overall the 8th player to complete 7000 Twenty20 runs.

He needed ten runs to complete the 7000-run milestone coming into this game. With his 2nd boundary, a brilliant strike down the ground against Trent Boult, he got to the mark in 212 innings. Thus, he became the 2nd quickest to reach the 7000-run milestone in this format after Chris Gayle, who took just 192 innings. Kohli was earlier the 2nd fastest to 6000 T20 runs using 184 innings, only behind Gayle (162), his team-mate in the IPL.

Kohli is also the 2nd highest run-getter in the Twenty20 Internationals with close to 2000 runs and only behind Brendon McCullum (2140 runs). In 2015, having required just 27 innings to complete 1000 runs in T20Is, Kohli became the quickest to the milestone.

He is currently the 2nd highest run-getter in the IPL with 4418 runs, only 122 runs behind Suresh Raina (4540). At the end of the 2013 season, the right-hander was at the 7th place but scored over 2000 runs in the last four seasons and could have been the leading run-scorer in the league if he didn’t miss the initial part of the 2017 season.

Fastest to 7000 runs in T20 cricket:

(Stats as on November 4, 2017)