Indian skipper Virat Kohli
Indian skipper Virat Kohli on Sunday surpassed his deputy Rohit Sharma to become the leading run-getter across the three formats in 2019. He reclaimed the top spot with his 98th fifty-plus score in ODIs, scored in the third and final ODI game of the series against West Indies at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack.
Kohli now has 2443* runs in 44 matches at an average of 65.83 and a strike rate of 90.42 with seven centuries and 14 half-centuries. Rohit, who scored a run-a-ball 63 on Sunday during India's chase of 316 in the series decider, stands second with 2442 runs in 47 matches at an average of 53.08 and strike rate of 91.28 with 10 centuries and as many half-centuries.
Breaking Kohli's international run tally in 2019 - he scored 612 runs in six Test matches with two centuries and as many half-centuries, 446 runs in 10 T20I matches with five half-centuries and 1361* runs in 26 matches in the ODI format with five centuries and seven half-centuries.
With a difference of over 400 runs with third-placed Babar Azam (2082 runs in 36 matches) and around 600 runs with fourth-placed Ross Taylor (1820 runs in 39 matches), Kohli is most likely to finish as the highest run-getter across formats in 2019. It will be for the fourth consecutive year that Kohli will finish top in a calendar year as the highest run-getter in international cricket. He finished with 2595 runs in 37 matches in 2016, 2818 runs in 46 matches in 2017 and 2735 runs in 37 games in 2018. In fact, his last two tallies stand third and fourth respectively in the all-time top-5 list. If he achieves the feat for the fourth time, he will become only the second cricketer after Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara to finish a calendar year with most international runs four times in his career.
Earlier in the evening, Rohit managed to eclipse the Indian skipper to finish 2019 as the highest run-getter in one-day international cricket. Rohit scored his 43rd ODI half-century on Sunday in Cuttack en route to his run-a-ball score of 63 as he finished 2019 with 1490 runs in the format from 28 matches. Kohli, who was denied a unique hat-trick by Rohit, finished second on the list followed by West Indies batsman Shai Hope.
