On July 1, Shoaib Malik became the third man to cross the 2000-run milestone in Twenty20 International cricket, and Virat Kohli followed him to the mark on July 3, making it a club of four with Rohit Sharma likeliest to become the fifth, an ICC report on Wednesday said.
Kohli scored a 22-ball 20 not out, sticking to taking singles as KL Rahul got to a century, in India's eight-wicket win over England in the first of three T20Is at Old Trafford on Tuesday. That took him to 2012 runs in the format, only behind Martin Guptill, the retired Brendon McCullum and Malik.
Kohli is also the fastest to the mark in terms of innings played, getting to 2000 runs in his 56th T20I innings; McCullum had reached it in 66 hits. Kohli's average is also vastly superior to that of the others in the group.Of the batsmen chasing the pack, Sharma is best placed to get there first. He scored a 30-ball 32 in the Manchester game and is just 19 runs away, with two
games in England left to play.
The only other batsman to have crossed the mark of 1900 runs is Mohammad Shahzad, the Afghan wicket-keeper batsman, while the now-retired Tillakaratne Dilshan (1889) of Sri Lanka and South Africa's JP Duminy (1822) are further behind in the list.(UNI)
