For Virat Kohli, it is still a dream to reach closer or break the record of Sachin Tendulkar in international cricket, but he has managed to achieve it in the IPL as a captain.
Kohli, the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore became the 1st captain for scoring over 500 runs in IPL in 3 seasons and while attempting to do so, he broke the record of Sachin, who achieved this 2 times, when he was Mumbai Indians’ Captain. In the 2010 edition, Sachin scored 618 runs while in the 2011 edition, he scored 553.
For Kohli, 67 runs were needed for completing 500 runs in IPL 2016 before a match with Rising Pune Supergiants on Saturday. Virat scored 108 off 58 balls for chasing the 192 run target for the team. With this, Kohli also became the 1st captain for scoring 2 hundreds in a season.
So far, Kohli scored 541 runs in 8 matches. Overall this was the 4th instance wherein 500 run mark was crossed by Kohli in IPL and 3 times he was captain. He had scored 634 runs in 2013, which is also the highest ever aggregate by a captain in the IPL, and 505 runs in 2015 as RCB’s captain. In 2011 as a player, he scored 557 runs.
Gautam Gambhir & David Warner are the two other batsmen who have crossed the 500-run mark in the IPL as captains. Gambhir had scored 590 runs to guide Kolkata Knight Riders to their maiden IPL title in 2012, while Warner was the orange cap holder in the last edition with 562 runs in 14 matches.