KOHLI 4TH FASTEST TO SCORE 5,000 RUNS
Indian captain reaches the milestone in his 105 Test innings, the same as his England counterpart Joe Root.
the 11th Indian batsman to achieve the milestone, and that too in front of his home fans, when he reached 25 during India’s first innings.
The legendary Sunil Gavaskar is the quickest among Indian batsmen, achieving the distinction in 95 innings.
Former star opener Virender Sehwag is second at 98 innings while Sachin Tendulkar is placed third with 103 knocks.
Kohli is also the second quickest among Indian batsmen in terms of time. He needed 2,358 days to complete the feat after Rahul Dravid’s 2,252 days. Sehwag is third at 2,464 days.
The India skipper is also the second youngest to reach the 5,000run mark among Indian bastmen at 29 years and 27 days. Tendulkar tops the list among Indians at 25 years and 301 days.
Entering the match with 4,975 Test runs to his name, Kohli struck three boundaries before lunch to be eight short of the mark at the interval.
He played a brilliant backfoot drive past point off Lakmal to get within a run and then drove him for another boundary past wide mid-off to go past the mark.
Congratulating the India skipper, the International Cricket Council (ICC) posted on Twitter: “Congratulations to @imVkohli on passing 5,000 Test runs! He reaches the milestone in 105 innings - the same number as England captain @root66!”
Meanwhile Sri Lanka fast bowling coach Rumesh Ratnayake said on Saturday his side could have been in a better position had chinaman bowler Lakshan Sandakan struck early in the day.
The 26-year-old struck twice in a span of two overs, including the prized scalp of centurion Murali Vijay (155) and Ajinkya Rahane (1) to pull the hosts back in the dying overs of the opening day of the third and final Test at the Ferozeshah Kotla here.
“We miss him (Rangana Herath), he is our leading wicket-taker but we had Sandakan in line, so we had to bring him,” the 53-yearold told reporters during the end of the first day’s press-conference.
“We saw glimpses of what he (Sandakan) can do, but we wished it had come two sessions earlier,” Ratnayake added. IANS