Who is the Run Machine of Cricket

While the age-old game of cricket has seen many prolific run-scorers across various decades, none come close to former India captain Virat Kohli, who is the run machine of cricket. The ICC Player of the Decade has pretty much ripped apart the record books with his otherworldly run-scoring form, which has hardly seen a dip since his debut on August 18, 2008.

Virat Kohli in Test Cricket

With 29 centuries and half-centuries in the longest format of the game in just 111 matches, Virat Kohli has tallied 8676 runs in red-ball cricket with an average of 49.29 and a stupendous strike rate of 55.23. Since debuting in Test cricket on June 20, 2011, against West Indies, King Kohli has been virtually unstoppable with his biggest chunk of runs coming in the years 2016, 2017 and 2018, where the player tallied 3596 runs.

Kohli’s favourite opponents have been the mighty Australians, against whom he has scored 2042 runs in 25 matches with an average of 47.48. He also has eight centuries against the Aussies, six of which have come Down Under in their backyard. Kohli has been supreme against England as well, tallying 1991 runs in 28 matches with an average of 42.36. Two of Kohli’s five tons against England have come away from home. Other countries against whom Virat Kohli has tallied over 1000 runs are South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies.

Virat Kohli in ODIs

Inarguably the best ODI batsman to ever come out of India and become the world’s best, Virat Kohli is simply unreal in the 50-over format. He ended as the highest run-scorer in the 2023 ODI World Cup, tallying 765 runs in 11 matches and bringing up his 50th ODI century in the process. With 13848 runs in 292 matches so far, Kohli is the third-highest run-scorer in the history of ODIs.

Apart from having the most number of ODI centuries, Kohli also has the record of scoring the most number of centuries against one team - 10 tons against Sri Lanka in 53 games, five of which came in Sri Lanka. Kohli has tallied 2594 runs against the Lankans with an average of 63.26. Kohli has dominated Australia in the 50-over format as well, summing up 2367 runs in 49 games with an average of 53.79, followed by West Indies (2261 runs with an average of 66.50).

Virat Kohli in T20Is

While Kohli wasn’t a part of India’s glorious 2007 World T20 winning team, he has been almost undroppable from the T20 international team since making his debut on November 10, 2022. The top-order batsman has been absolutely crucial for the team tallying, 4008 runs across 115 matches at a strike rate of 137.96. Not only is Kohli the highest run-scorer in T20I history but also boasts of winning the most Player of the Match (15) and Player of the Series (7) awards in the shortest format.