Dubai: They are the skippers of their respective IPL franchises. One is the captain of the Indian limited overs sides, the other is his deputy. They have a healthy rivalry on the field as far as scoring runs is concerned. They have also broken batting records already in their respective careers. The two persons we are talking about are Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been the top run-getter for their respective franchises.
Well both Virat Kohli (skipper of Royal Challengers Bangalore) and Rohit Sharma (captain of Mumbai Indians) are on the threshold of new achievements when the two sides meet here Monday. For Kohli it is a very crucial game while Rohit will definitely want to continue with the form that he showed against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in his side’s second match. He scored a match-winning 80 and led his team to a fantastic win.
But first to Kohli who is desperately seeking some form. And everyone is aware what an in-form Kohli can do. Well, he is just 85 runs short of a huge milestone. If he gets those runs, he will become the first Indian batsman to reach 9,000 runs in T20 cricket. Before Kohli no other Indian batsmen have achieved the feat. Currently, Kohli is the leading Indian player with most T20 runs, 8,915 runs so far in 283 matches.
So far in T20 cricket six others have scored 9,000 runs and more with Chris Gayle (13,296 runs) leading the list. Others who have achieved the distinction are Kieron Pollard (10,238 runs), Brendon McCullum (9,922 runs), Shoaib Malik (9,906 runs), David Warner (9,318 runs), and Aaron Finch (9,088 runs). So if and when Kohli gets those 85 more runs he will be the first Indian and seventh overall to get to that figure.
Rohit on the other hand is just 10 runs shy of 5,000 runs in the IPL. The only others who have achieved the feat are Kohli and CSK’s Suresh Raina. The latter has dropped out of this year’s IPL due to personal reasons.
Rohit is currently placed at the third position in the list of highest run-scorers in IPL with 4990 runs. Leading the list is Kohli with 5,427 runs in 179 matches at an average of 37.42. On the other hand Raina has scored 5,368 runs in 193 games at an average of 33.34.
Rohit recently became only the fourth member of the 200 IPL sixes club in the previous game against KKR, also needs one more six to take his total tally of sixes for Mumbai Indians to 150. He will become only the second player to hit 150 sixes after Kieron Pollard (177).