Hyderabad:India batting stalwart Virat Kohli and Australia's Test run machine Steve Smith are on the cusp of equaling and might break legendary India batter Sachin Tendulkar's record during the upcoming highly anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024, starting from November 22 in Perth.
Virat Kohli and Steve Smith have delivered exceptional performances in the BGT Trophy. Both players have scored eight centuries each. In comparison, Sachin Tendulkar has nine Test centuries to his name from 34 matches. Both Kohli and Smith need just two more centuries to surpass Tendulkar's milestone, while a single century in the series would allow them to equal it.
Kohli has been a part of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy since 2011 and has played 42 innings across 24 Tests and has amassed 1979 runs at an average of 48.26 with eight hundreds and five fifties. On the other hand, Smith took only 35 innings of 18 Tests to hit eight centuries. He has 1887 runs under his kitty at an average of 65.06.
Apart from this, Kohli also needs only 21 runs to complete his 2000 Test runs against Australia in Tests. He will become the fifth India to achieve this feat after Tendulkar (3262), VVS Laxman (2434), Rahul Dravid (2143) and Cheteshwar Pujara (2033).
On the other hand, Smith needs 113 runs to complete 2,000 runs against India and has a chance to become the only third Australia to achieve this feat. He is currently the fourth leading run-getter for Australia in the BGT trophy after Ricky Ponting (2555), Micheal Clark (2049) and Matthew Hayden (1888).