India's Virat Kohli celebrates after scoring a half-century (50 runs) during the third Twenty20 international cricket match between India and Australia at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad on 25 September, 2022
India's Virat Kohli celebrates after scoring a half-century (50 runs) during the third Twenty20 international cricket match between India and Australia at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad on 25 September, 2022
Cricket

Kohli surpasses Rahul Dravid to become India's second highest international run-scorer

ANIHyderabad, India

Virat Kohli on Sunday surpassed Rahul Dravid to become the second highest run-scorer for India in international cricket.

The star batter accomplished this feat in the third T20I against Australia in Hyderabad. In the match, Kohli was in full flow, switching from attacker to anchor, from anchor to attacker at will. He struck 63 runs in 48 balls, consisting of three fours and four sixes. His strike rate was also pretty solid at 131.25.

Now, Kohli has a total of 24,078 runs in 471 matches across 525 innings at an average of 53.62. His best individual score in cricket is 254*. A total of 71 centuries have come from his bat along with 125 half-centuries.

He has surpassed Indian great Rahul Dravid, who has scored 24,064 international runs for the Indian cricket team. Though Dravid's international cricket run tally stands at 24,208, the rest of his 144 runs have been scored as a part of teams like Asia XI, ICC World XI.

The leading run scorer for Team India in international cricket is none other than Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar. In 664 matches across 782 innings, Tendulkar has scored 34,357 runs at an average of 48.52. 100 centuries and 164 half-centuries have come from his bat, with the best score of 248*.

India's Virat Kohli celebrates after scoring a century (100 runs) during the Asia Cup Twenty20 international cricket Super Four match between Afghanistan and India at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai on 8 September, 2022

These batters are followed by former skipper Sourav Ganguly (18,433), MS Dhoni (17,092) and Virender Sehwag (16,892).

Coming to the third T20I against Australia, visitors Aussies posted 186/7 in their 20 overs. Cameron Green (52 off 21 balls) helped them get to an explosive start.

But following that, spinners Yuzvendra Chahal (1/22) and Axar Patel (3/33) helped the Men in Blue make a comeback, restricting Aussies' run flow and leaving them struggling at 117/6 in 13.5 overs.

Then a 68-run stand between Tim David (54) and Daniel Sams (28*) helped the visitors reach 186/7 in their 20 overs. Axar was India's star with the ball and continued his good run in the series. Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel also got one wicket each.

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