India captain Virat Kohli on Wednesday joined an elite list of cricketers as he became the fastest man to complete 10,000 runs in one-day international cricket. He reached the milestone in the 2nd ODI against West Indies in Vizag.
Kohli surpassed batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar to reach the milestone. Tendulkar entered the 10k club in his 259th innings and in his 266th match, while it took Kohli only 205 innings and 213 matches to canter to 10,000 runs.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly (263 innings) is the third fastest on the list which includes former Australia captain Ricky Ponting (266) and former South Africa all-rounder Jacques Kallis (272) in the top five.
Overall, Kohli is the 13th cricketer and only the fifth Indian to go past the 10,000-run barrier. (VIRAT IS A DIAMOND - SOURAV GANGULY)
Apart from Kohli, the other Indians on the list are Tendulkar (18,426 runs), Sourav Ganguly (11,363 runs), Rahul Dravid (10,889 runs) and MS Dhoni (10,143 runs).
Kohli, who is the world number one batsman in ODIs and Tests, is currently on a record-breaking spree.
On Wednesday at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam, he also went past Tendulkar on the list of Indian batsmen to score most number of runs against West Indies in the 50-over format.
Since making his debut in 2008, the 29-year-old Delhi-born batsman has rapidly climbed up the ladders of international cricket. He is now considered by many as the greatest of his generation. Kohli's aggressive strokeplay and fine technique make him one of the best all-time ODI batsmen.
Kohli is also second on the list of batsmen with the most number of ODI centuries, second only to Tendulkar. So far, Kohli has scored 36 ODI tons and is just 13 behind the Master Blaster.
This year, the phenomenal run-machine was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna by the Government of India.
Apart from being a brilliant batsman, Kohli is also a fitness freak and a leader par excellence. Ever since he took over as captain of the Indian team, Kohli has taken the team to new heights - Team India is now number one on the ICC Test rankings and number two on the ODI and T20I rankings.