Virat Kohli scored his 29th T20I half-century in India's clash against Pakistan, overtaking Chris Gayle for most fifty-plus scores in the history of the T20 World Cup.
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Team India skipper Virat Kohli surpassed former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) teammate Chris Gayle on Sunday, to become the player with the most 50-plus scores in the history of the T20 World Cup. Kohli achieved this unique distinction during the Super 12 Group 2 encounter of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021 against Pakistan. The Team India skipper accumulated 57 runs off 49 deliveries in an innings comprising of five boundaries and a six, to record his 10th 50-plus score in the history of the prestigious tournament. It further marked his 29th T20I half-century. Gayle has been pushed to the second spot, with nine such scores. Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Rohit Sharma round off the top five list with 7 and 6 50-plus scores apiece.
Kohli is further the first-ever player to register 10 fifty-plus scores in the history of the T20 World Cup. The Team India skipper also recorded the maiden 50+ score by an Indian captain in the Men’s T20 World Cup.
Kohli further became the first player to accumulate 500 runs against Pakistan in ICC events. The 32-year-old reached the milestone after a personal score of 26, having been sent in to bat by Pakistan skipper Babar Azam who won the toss. Kohli had accumulated scores of 16, 9, 78, 22, 36, 107, 55, 81*, 5, 77 in clashes against India’s arch-rivals in ICC events previously.
Kohli’s performance in the ongoing encounter is nothing but an extension of the confidence which was visible in his statements before the encounter against Pakistan, in an interaction with the press.
“I am not going to reveal the playing 11 but we have a very balanced squad. Hardik Pandya is likely to bowl at some point of the tournament, it gives lots of balance and he is improving day by day. I believe the quality of pitches is going to be far better in the World Cup, dew factor will be there. There is no special strategy for the game again Pakistan and playing XI would be according to the situation. We’ve played a tournament like IPL where there are very good teams, we play regularly week in week out. Multi nation events also give us new challenges. But there also needs to be communication with players regarding workload. All the people in the team are playing their roles to perfection and that gives us a lot of confidence heading into this tournament,” said Kohli.
The 32-year-old added that he has explained already why he is stepping away from the T20I captaincy and there is no point harping on it.
“I have already addressed the issue, no point in harping on it. I have explained myself very honestly. If people feel there is more to it, then I feel sorry for them,” stated Kohli.
India Squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami.
