He joined the elite list with legendary Sachin Tendulkar on Saturday (December 14) – the Star Indian batter and former captain Virat Kohli. The right-handed batter from Delhi, now 36, had his international debut for India on August 18, 2008, against Sri Lanka in Dambulla. He is now the second cricketer in the world to play 100 international matches against Australia. The feat came his way after Kohli was named in India’s playing XI for the ongoing third Test against the Baggy Greens at The Gabba in Brisbane.
Sachin became the first cricketer to accomplish the milestone of 100 international matches against Australia. This batter from India played 39 Tests and 71 ODIs against the Australian team during his 24-year-long international career. He scored 3630 runs and picked up 11 wickets in the five-day format of the game and amassed a total of 3077 runs and 20 wickets in 50-over matches.
Currently, Kohli has participated in 28 Tests, 49 ODIs, and 23 T20Is against Australia, totaling in 2615, 2367, and 794 runs respectively.
Most matches against Australia
Sachin Tendulkar (India) – 110
Virat Kohli (India) – 100
Desmond Haynes (West Indies) – 97
MS Dhoni (India) – 91
Viv Richards (West Indies) – 88
Most runs against Australia
Sachin Tendulkar (India) – 6707
Virat Kohli (India) – 5326
Brian Lara (West Indies) – 4714
Desmond Haynes (West Indies) – 4495
Viv Richards (West Indies) – 4453
Following them in the scorecard is former West Indies opener Desmond Haynes, legendary Indian skipper MS Dhoni, and West Indies legend Vivian Richards, who played 97, 91, and 88 matches against Australia, respectively.
More importantly, Tendulkar and Kohli are the only two cricketers to have recorded over a century of matches against Australia, and they now also occupy the first and second positions in the rank of batters with the most runs in international cricket against these six-time ODI World Cup champions. While Sachin tops the list with 6707 runs, Kohli has a number of 5326 runs to his name in 117 innings of 100 matches
Kohli, who is India’s fourth-leading run scorer in Test cricket, scored a century in the second innings of the first Test of the ongoing five-match series, which was played from November 22 to 24 at Optus Stadium in Perth. The right-handed batter would like to score one more hundred in the Brisbane Test that has just started on Saturday.
If Kohli scores a century in Brisbane, then he will only be the third batter worldwide, after Sunil Gavaskar and Alastair Cook, to score a century in all five major Test centres of Australia.
