India beat Afghanistan in the second T20I of the three-match series on Sunday (January 14) to seal the series 2-0 with one match to go. The hosts chased down 173 runs in less than 16 overs on a flat pitch in Indore. Even thougyh Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube were the heroes of the chase, Virat Kohli, making his comeback to the format after 14 months, also played his part scoring 29 runs off 16 balls with five fours to his name.
During his knock, Kohli also completed 2000 runs in run-chases in the shortest format and achieved a unique distinction with no cricketer being able to do it so far. He is now the only cricketer in history to score more than 2000 runs while batting second across all formats. In this aspect, for Test cricket, runs from both innings (2nd inns and 4th inns) while batting second are considered.
In T20Is, he has now amassed 2012 runs in 46 innings at an average of 71.85 and a strike-rate of 136.96 with 20 fifties to his name. When it comes to 50-over format (ODIs), Virat Kohli is again among top players having scored 7794 runs while batting second in 152 innings at an average of 65.49 and a strike-rate of 93.64 with 27 centuries and 40 fifties to his name.
The 35-year-old hasn't yet set the stage on fire on his return to form but has scored 4096 runs in 74 innings at an average of 59.36 with 17 hundreds and 12 fifties to show for his efforts. If only the fourth innings is taken into consideration, then the man has scored 1036 runs in 27 innings at an average of 45.04 with two tons and seven fifties to his name.
Kohli, having made his comeback now, must have felt that he missed out on going big in Indore. But the third and final T20I against Afghanistan is set to be played at his home ground in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Bengaluru on January 17 (Wednesday) and he will be eager to go score at least a fifty in that encounter.
