Ranchi: With Virat Kohli not playing in the ongoing T20 International (T20I) series against New Zealand, it is a golden chance for Kiwi opener Martin Guptill to break a record created by the Indian Test captain. Currently, Virat Kohli has an aggregate of 3,227 runs in T20Is, the highest among all the batsmen playing in this format of the game.
On the other hand Guptill has so far scored 3,217 runs in this format of the game. So if he scores 11 more runs, he will emerge as the highest run-getter in T20Is. It remains to be seen whether Guptill can achieve this feat when the Kiwis take the field in MS Dhoni’s hometown.
With Kohli not playing the entire T20I series against New Zealand, there is every possibility of Guptill, not only going past the former, but also extending his lead in the third match of the game to be played in Kolkata. In T20 cricketet Guptill has scored two centuries and 19 half centuries. Kohli on the other hand is yet to score a T20I hundred, but has 29 half centuries in his name.
The third on the list of most T20I runs is India’s present skipper Rohit Sharma. He has 3,086 runs to his credit. With Kohli taking a break from the shortest format of the game, Rohit has every chance to narrow the gap so that in future he can go past Kohli.
The Indian Test skipper has in the recent past emphasising on the fact that he wants to concentrate on his batting – more so in Test cricket as he feels that form of the game is the ultimate challenge. He has also made it clear that white ball cricket is not his first priority. In these circumstances there is every possibility of Rohit emerging on top of the run-getters list in the shortest format.
Making up the top five are Australia’s T20 captain Aaron Finch who has 2,608 runs in his kitty. He is followed by Ireland skipper Paul Stirling with 2,570 runs.