Dharamsala: After a forgettable tour to New Zealand, Indian skipper Virat Kohli will look to add another feather to his already illustrious cap as Men-in-Blue prepares to hosts Quinton de Kock-led South Africa for three-match ODI series.
Kohli, who is just 133 runs away from reaching 12,000 runs in his ODI career, would aim to touch the mark of 12K runs in India's upcoming limited-overs series. And if manage to do so, he will overtake batting great Sachin Tendulkar's record for fastest to 12000 runs.
Kohli has scored 11867 runs in one-dayers in 239 innings. Tendulkar had taken 300 innings to get to the landmark. Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting is currently second on the list having reached 12,000 ODI runs in 314 innings while former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara did so in 336 innings.
Fastest to 12,000 ODI runs:
Sachin Tendulkar in 300 innings
Ricky Ponting in 314 innings
Kumar Sangakkara in 336 innings
Sanath Jayasuriya in 379 innings
Mahela Jayawardene in 399 innings
Kohli will be looking to break the shackles in the first opportunity he gets in the South Africa series as he has been going through a rare rough patch of form.
In the recently concluded three-match ODI series in New Zealand, Kohli's highest score was 51 and he scored 15 and 9 in the other two matches. In the subsequent two-match Test series, Kohli managed scores of 2, 19, 3 and 14 as India lost the series 2-0.
The first ODI between India and South Africa will be played on Thursday in Dharamsala followed by the second ODI on Sunday in Lucknow. The final ODI will be played on March 18 in Kolkata.
