Virat Kohli led India to its first win on the tour of Australia, as they defeated Aaron Finch’s men in the third ODI of the series in Manuka Oval, Canberra. Though India lost the series 1-2, this win helped them avoid a white-wash and instill confidence in the team for upcoming matches.
Though the heroes of the victory were Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja with the bat and Jasprit Bumrah and Shardul Thakur with the ball, captain Virat Kohli also contributed nicely, making a sublime 63 runs.
During the same knock, he completed 12,000 runs in ODI cricket and broke the record of Sachin Tendulkar, becoming the fastest to the milestone in just 251 matches and 242nd innings. Overall, he became the 6th batsman to reach the 12K milestone in ODIs.
Kohli has 43 centuries and 60 half-centuries to his name in ODIs and has made his runs at an average of 59.30. He had made his debut in 2008 against Sri Lanka and took over the captaincy of the Indian team in 2017.
His efforts and achievement were lauded by former India batsmen VVS Laxman and Gautam Gambhir.
Laxman admitted he himself had doubted Kohli and felt that at one stage the Indian skipper will burn out, but was surprised after seeing his determination on the field.
"Oh yeah, phenomenal! I think the way he has played in each and every series, the kind of intensity he has maintained each and every day when he's on the cricket field is unbelievable. Because at some stage I thought that will be the biggest challenge for Virat Kohli, at some stages, he will burn out, but not even once we have seen that energy drop-down when Virat is on the cricket field, whether he is batting or he is fielding," Laxman said on Star Sports show Cricket Connected.
Laxman further lauded Kohli for his mastery in chasing totals in limited-overs and said, “And under pressure, because if you see his one-day record, how many hundreds did he get while chasing and then you know that you've got a target to achieve, there's always a scoreboard pressure on him, but he relishes pressure, he relishes responsibility and that's what gets the best out of him.”
Gautam Gambhir was also full of praises for his Delhi mate Virat Kohli and said, “You can take anything, you can actually do whatever you want, but the best feeling in the world is, when you score that last run and come back to your hotel room and you're so satisfied that you've done something for your country, what you were meant to do.”
"So probably, all those combinations have made him what he is, and hats off to him, he's scored more than 20,000 runs, centuries all that," he added.
Kohli will now lead the Men in Blue in the 3-match T20I series starting in Canberra on Dec 4.
(ANI inputs)
