Indian cricket star Virat Kohli is all set to play his 100th T20I match when he takes to the field against Pakistan in the much-anticipated Asia Cup 2022 campaign opener today, becoming the first Indian to play a century of matches in all formats of the sport at international level.
READ: Ahead of IND vs PAK Asia Cup match, meet beautiful WAGs of Pakistani players
Ever since his T20I debut against Zimbabwe back in 2010, he has been one of India`s most reliable batters in the shortest format of the game and has enviable numbers and some records to his name. On his debut T20I match, Virat had scored an unbeaten 26 off 21 balls and formed a 64-run stand which helped India win the match by six wickets.
Ever since then, his stature has grown massively in international cricket, including T20Is. Since then, he has represented India in 99 T20I matches, across which he has scored 3,308 runs at an average of 50.12. Virat`s individual best performance in this format is 94*. His strike rate in this format is 137.66. 30 half-centuries have come out of his bat in this format and he is yet to score a century here.
He is the third-highest run scorer in T20I cricket, following Rohit Sharma (3,487) and New Zealand's Martin Guptill (3,497) and his country`s second highest-run scorer. Virat has the second most fifty-plus scores in T20Is, with 30. At first is his skipper Rohit Sharma who has 31 fifty-plus scores, including four centuries.
READ: Asia Cup 2022: Pakistan's predicted XI vs India in Match 2: Who Will be the pace spearhead in Shaheen's absence?
He is the fourth-fastest batter to reach 1,000 runs in T20I cricket (27 innings) and the second fastest to reach 2,000 runs (56 innings) and 2,500 runs (68 innings). Virat has won the second-highest number of 'Player of the Match awards in T20Is, with 12, following Afghanistan`s Mohammed Nabi (13).
He also has the most number of 'Player of the Series' awards in T20I format, with total of seven such awards. Virat is a man of big occasions. He has performed really well for India in ICC T20 World Cup events. In his debut ICC T20 World Cup in 2012, he played in five matches and scored 185 runs at an average of 46.25. He scored two half-centuries in the tournament with the best of 78*. He was among the top-ten run scorers in the tournament.
This time around, challenges will be plenty for Virat when he takes to the field. Not only his team has to avenge its loss to Pakistan in T20 World Cup 2021, but he also has to regain his best form. The star batter has gone more than 1,000 days without an international ton. Since his last international century in November 2019, Kohli has played a total of 27 T20Is since his final international ton, he has scored 858 runs in this format at an average of 42.90. His best score in this format is 94*. He has hit eight half-centuries in this format since his last ton.
.
