Decorated Indian batter Virat Kohli smashed his 71st ton against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup, 2022.
King Kohli ended his dry spell of hundreds and scored his 71st against Afghanistan on Thursday in the Asia Cup 2022. India was facing Afghanistan in their last group match after getting eliminated from the tournament. Skipper Rohit Sharma was rested for the game and Kohli was asked to open the innings with KL Rahul. He scored an unbeaten 122 off 61 balls with a strike rate of 200. With the help of his giant knock, India posted a massive target of 213 on board. Afghanistan was crushed under pressure and perished quickly. Bhuvneshwar Kumar redeemed himself and clicked a fifer. India ends the tournament on a high note.
Here is a list of records that he broke with the help of this glorious knock
- He shares the stage with Ricky Pointing and stands second on the list of most international hundreds. Both have 71 centuries, while Sachin Tendulkar ranks first with 100 centuries.
- He took 522 innings to reach the 71st mark, which makes him faster than any player in the world.
- Kohli breached the mark of 24000 international runs. He is the fastest player to reach the mark with only 522 innings. He beat his idol, Sachin Tendulkar, who took 543 innings to reach this feat.
- Virat is now only the fourth Indian batter to have an international century in all three formats. The ones above him are Suresh Raina, KL Rahul, and Rohit Sharma.
- 122 is the highest individual T20 score by an Indian batter. He broke the previous record of 118, scored by Rohit Sharma against Sri Lanka. It is also the highest T20 score by any batter in the UAE.
- He completed a total of 3500 T20 runs and is now second to Rohit Sharma in the list to have achieved this feat. He also took the least number of innings(96) to achieve this mark.
- His overall tally for the Asia Cup now stands at 1042 runs. He ranks third on the list, after Kumar Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya.
- Virat has a total of 6 centuries in the T20 format. He is tied for the most by any Indian batter with Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.
A century after the long wait of 1020 days
Virat has 276 runs in 5 matches. That makes him the top run scorer of the tournament. The man had 11 centuries in 2017 and has now hit this century after a break of over 1000 days. His last ton came in the year 2019. His return to form is crucial from the team’s perspective. They badly needed their best batter to be his true self for the upcoming T20 World Cup that is scheduled in just a few weeks.
