Virat Kohli Breaks Sachin Tendulkar's Record After 85 Vs Australia In World Cup

On Sunday, Virat Kohli broke a special record held by India legend Sachin Tendulkar in white-ball cricket.

Kohli surpassed Tendulkar in the record for most runs scored by an Indian cricketer in white-ball ICC tournaments. Kohli claimed the milestone during his match-winning knock of 85 in India's Cricket World Cup 2023 opening fixture against Australia in Chennai.

After India went three down for just two runs in their chase of 200 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, the former India captain shared a 165-run partnership with KL Rahul for the fourth wicket.

Kohli now has 2,720 runs in ICC white-ball tournaments, one more than Tendulkar, who is fondly called the "Master Blaster" in the cricket community. Tendulkar accumulated the impressive record of 2,719 runs in just 58 innings, while Kohli took 64 innings to surpass that landmark.

Kohli, however, achieved this feat with a magnificent average of 65.23, including two centuries and 25 half-centuries. On the other hand, Tendulkar scored over 2,000 runs in white-ball ICC tournaments at an average of 52.28, with seven centuries and 16 fifties.

One must not forget that Kohli bagged the elite milestone by competing in all three major white-ball ICC tournaments – Cricket World Cup, ODI Champions Trophy, and the T20 World Cup. Tendulkar, on the other hand, never had the opportunity to showcase his expertise in T20 World Cups, participating only in the ODI World Cup and ODI Champions Trophy.

With a minimum of eight more matches remaining for India in the ongoing Cricket World Cup, Kohli could certainly be expected to further extend his lead in the list of most runs by an Indian in ICC white-ball tournaments.

The next best batters in the list are India captain Rohit Sharma, World Cup-winning all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, former skippers Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni and India's current head coach Rahul Dravid.

In ICC limited-over tournaments for India, Rohit has scored 2,422 runs at an average of 46.19, Yuvraj amassed 1,707 runs at an average of 34.77, Ganguly scored 1,671 runs, Dhoni recorded 1,492 runs and Dravid registered 1,487.

Kohli, whose career is always compared to Tendulkar's, is just two centuries away from equalling Tendulkar's world record of 49 ODI hundreds.

India kick-started the World Cup 2023 with a six-wicket victory over Australia. Rohit and co. are next set to take on Afghanistan on Wednesday at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi.

Team India have not won an ICC tournament since clinching the 50-over World Cup in 2011. Dhoni was the Player of the Match for his unbeaten knock of 91 off 79 balls as India defeated Sri Lanka by six wickets at the iconic Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.