Stats: Virat Kohli completes 1000 runs in T20Is as captain

Over the last couple of years, Virat Kohli has played only major T20I series in order to manage his workload and allow youngsters to get a taste of International Cricket. However, it couldn’t keep him away from breaking records in the T20I format. The very first run he scored in 2020 made him the leading run-getter in Men’s Twenty20 Internationals going past his teammate Rohit Sharma.

The tag of leading run-getter in Men’s T20I kept changing between Kohli and Rohit in the last three months. Interestingly, both the star players finished 2019 exactly on 2633 runs. Kohli walked to bat in the Indore T20I during the 12th over after the dismissal of Shikhar Dhawan. India were in a strong position needing 56 runs from 52 balls with 8 wickets in hand.

The equation came down to 22 runs from 4 overs after the 16th over yielded 17 runs. Kohli then took on Lasith Malinga smashing him for a six and a four in the 17th over. His individual score read 24 by end of the over with which Virat Kohli completed 1000 runs as captain in T20 Internationals. Kohli is now the 6th player with 1000 runs as captain in Men’s T20I matches and overall the 11th to do so across Men’s and Women’s T20I games.

Kohli is the 2nd Indian skipper after MS Dhoni to achieve the feat in Men’s T20Is. Harmanpreet Kaur also scored 1000 T20I runs as captain of Indian Women’s team.  Virat Kohli got to this milestone in only 30 innings; the fastest among all the 11 players. The previous quickest was Faf du Plessis who needed 31 innings only. West Indies Women’s skipper Stafanie Taylor also completed this feat in exactly 31 innings.

However, in terms of matches played, Kohli is behind both Faf and Stafanie as they needed exactly 31 matches. The Indore T20I was the 32nd match as captain for Kohli in this format. He would have tied with them if he reached the milestone during the first T20I in Guwahati where no play was possible. MS Dhoni, in 57 innings, is the slowest to 1000 T20I runs as captain among the 11 players across Men’s and Women’s cricket.

Fastest to 1000 runs in Twenty20 International matches as captain

(Stats as on January 7, 2020)