Virat Kohli created history in the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) by surpassing another milestone in his illustrious career, achieving 12,000 runs in T20 cricket during the inaugural match of the season between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Chennai Super Kings.
Kohli, whose T20 run total was 11,994 before the match on Friday, needed six runs to reach the landmark.
The former India captain reached this milestone in his 377th T20 match and 360th innings. He has notched up 8 centuries and 91 fifties in T20 cricket thus far.
Kohli faced just eight deliveries in the initial seven overs. He eventually achieved his 12,000 T20 runs with a couple off the ninth ball he faced in the subsequent over bowled by CSK's Sri Lankan skipper Maheesh Theekshana.
Within these figures, Kohli has scored 4037 runs in T20 internationals for India, including one century. The remainder of the runs have been accrued while representing his state team Delhi, Indians, and Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Rohit Sharma follows as the next leading Indian in the rankings with a total of 11,156.
At the helm of the list is former West Indies opener Chris Gayle, who has scored 14,562 runs in T20 cricket. Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik occupies the next position in the list with 13,360 runs, followed by another West Indian, Kieron Pollard, with 12,900 runs.
Kohli made his T20 debut on 3rd April 2007, for Delhi against Himachal Pradesh in the Inter-State Twenty-20 Tournament, subsequently renamed as the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 trophy. He scored 35 runs in the match.
RCB's Kohli additionally boasts the record for the highest number of runs in a single edition of the IPL (973 runs in 2016) and the T20 World Cup (319 runs in 2014).
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