After thrashing Australia, Virat Kohli & Co. are ready to start the month-long New Zealand tour with a five-match T20I series on January 24 in Auckland. While it is the long-awaited away tour of India, the fans are more excited to see the India skipper Virat Kohli play his first T20I game in New Zealand.
In his first T20I game on New Zealand tour, the India skipper will, however, be looking forward to surpassing the record of the former India skipper, MS Dhoni. Dhoni, who has scored a total of 1112 runs in T20I format, stands second in the list of the most runs as captain in the shorter version of the game. The top-order batsman of India is just 81 runs behind his predecessor, Dhoni.
Kohli to surpass Dhoni’s most-runs record as captain in T20I:
Meanwhile, earlier this year, India hosted a three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka that they won by 2-0. While the first game was washed away, the second game saw India chased away in less than 18 overs.
In the series decider, India gave the visitors an easy target of 202 runs but the Indian bowlers dismissed entire team for just 123 runs in less than 16 overs.
The skipper Kohli remained unbeaten for 30 runs in the second game while he scored 17-ball 26 in the series decider.
However, the top-ranked batsman became the fastest captain to score 1000-runs in T20Is during the Sri Lanka series. Kohli was the only second Indian batsman to have achieved the feat after the ex-skipper Dhoni.
Meanwhile, the Indian run-machine has aggregated 197 runs in the five twenty-over games he has played against New Zealand. Kohli has scored two half-centuries but is yet to register a ton against the Black Caps.
However, the India skipper is all geared up to take on the hosts and achieve another record-breaking feat in the shorter version of the game.
Here’s the table:
Player |
Total runs |
T20I innings |
| Faf du Plessis | 1273 | 40 |
| MS Dhoni | 1112 | 62 |
| Kane Williamson | 1083 | 39 |
| Virat Kohli | 1032 | 32 |