Records were aplenty for Indian skipper Virat Kohli as he notched up his highest individual score as an opener in T20I cricket, achieving it during the fifth and final match of the series against England at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Among a couple of records that he managed to pull off on Saturday, the one that stood out, en route to his unbeaten 52-ball knock of 80, laced with seven boundaries and two sixes, was that Kohli became the highest run-getter in a T20I bilateral series among the 12 full-member nations. Kohli's 28th half-century knock and third in the series took his tally in the contest to 230 in five innings at an average of 115 and strike rate of 147.43. Kohli surpassed KL Rahul's tally of 224 scored in a five-match series against in New Zealand in 2019/20 series.
He started off the series with a duck before bouncing back from the lean patch to score two unbeaten scores of 73 and 77 in successive innings. He was dismissed for 1 in the fourth T20I, but came back again, this time as an opener to score an unbeaten 80.
The knock is also is best among the eight times he has opened for India in T20I cricket, going past his previous best of 70 scored back in 2012 against New Zealand in Chennai.
Kohli knock, coupled with able assistance from Rohit Sharma's 34-ball 64 and 30 odd from Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya, helped India finish with 224 for the loss of just two wickets. This is India's highest score against England in the format, going past their previous best of 218 scored in 2007.
