File photo of Virat Kohli.
India's tour to Australia is certainly not going according to plan while Virat Kohli's captaincy has faced ire of many. The team lost both its ODIs played at the Sydney Cricket Ground while chasing; conceding the series in due process.
Team India's bowling has been largely disappointing while batsmen have often failed to build on a good start in the pressure of chasing a big total. In such a scenario, the outfit is once again expecting Kohli to do his magic and the skipper is surely capable of doing it. We already saw glimpses of his form in the last game when he scored 89 runs while chasing a mammoth 390.
And on Wednesday, playing a dead rubber in capital city Canberra, the 32-year-old batsman will have an opportunity of personal victory as he stands just 23 runs away from becoming the sixth batsman to score 12000 runs in ODIs.
And if he manages to do so on Wednesday, he will become the quickest batsman to reach the mark. With the tie being his 251st game in Indian colours, he will be head and shoulders above legendary Tendulkar, who took 300 innings to reach the mark. As far as the number of innings is concerned, Tendulkar came out to bat 300 times to breach the milestone while this will be Kohli's 242nd outing with the bat.
Prior to Kohli, Australia’s Ricky Ponting, Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara, Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya, and Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene scored 12k-plus runs in the ODIs.
Former Aussie captain Ponting took 329 matches to reach the milestone while Sangakkara is third in the list at the moment with 359 matches. He is followed by Jayasuriya (390) and Jayawardene (426).
Kohli will also be on the verge of equalling Sachin’s record of most ODI hundreds by an Indian player against Australia. If Kohli makes a ton, it will be his 9th ODI hundred against the Aussies.
