During his team's Super 12 encounter against Bangladesh on Wednesday, popular Indian cricketer Virat Kohli surpassed all previous run scorers in the annals of the men's T20 World Cup.
In the seventh over of India's innings, Kohli passed Mahela Jayawardene, the former captain of Sri Lanka, and scored 16 runs, breaking the previous record of 1016 runs. The Indian batsman has now amassed 1065 runs in T20 World Cups with an average of 88.75 and a strike rate of over 132.46.
The 33-year-old, who was participating in his seventh T20 World Cup, struck 12 half-centuries before becoming the competition's highest run scorer in just his 23rd innings. While Jayawardene faced fewer balls (754 balls) than Kohli did, he still played 31 innings to set his record (773).
Chris Gayle (965), Rohit Sharma (921), and Tillakaratne Dilshan (897) respectively are in third, fourth, and fifth place on the list of all-time run scorers in T20 World Cup history, following Kohli and Jayawardene.
In his first T20 World Cup, Kohli scored 185 runs; he led the league in scoring in 2014; and finished second in run total in 2016. He is the first male cricket player to have won the award twice, having been named Player of the Tournament in both the 2014 and 2016 editions. The most Player-of-the-Match accolades in the history of the competition were given to him with six.
Prior to being dismissed for 12 against South Africa, the great batsman entered the 2022 T20 World Cup with 845 runs and had struck two straight undefeated half-centuries — against Pakistan and the Netherlands.
The former India captain also owns the record for most runs scored in T20 international matches, surpassing Rohit, Martin Guptill, Babar Azam, and Paul Stirling.
India defeated Bangladesh by 5 runs using the DLS technique, moving to the top of Group 2 and edging closer to a semifinal spot in the present T20 World Championship thanks to Kohli's outstanding innings (64 not out from 44).
Despite a slow start to the year, Kohli recovered his form in the Asia Cup and in bilateral matches against Australia and South Africa prior to the tournament. He then got his game off to a fast start in front of over 90,000 spectators at the MCG against Pakistan. In spite of a slip-up against South Africa, Kohli joined Jayawardena as the only player with four-figure totals after runs against the Netherlands brought him closer to the 1,000 mark.
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