Kumar Sangakkara picks this India cricketer to break his unique world record

During his interview in ESPNCricinfo’s 25 Questions segment, Kumar Sangakkara was asked about the player who he believes can break his record and he said that Virat Kohli is head and shoulders above the rest

cricket Updated: Jun 21, 2019 14:24 IST

India's Rohit Sharma (L) celebrates with India's captain Virat Kohli after scoring a century.(AFP)

When it comes to ODI records, Kumar Sangakkara holds a special position in the history books. The former Sri Lanka wicket-keeper batsman is the only cricketer in the history of the game to score four consecutive centuries as he achieved the impressive feat n the 2015 World Cup.

It has been a record that has stood the test of time but Sangakkara believes that Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli can be the one to break it. During his interview in ESPNCricinfo’s 25 Questions segment, he was asked about the player who he believes can break his record and he said that Kohli is head and shoulders above the rest.

“Quite a few of them but Virat Kohli stands head and shoulders above them,” he said.

Kohli had a disappointing start to the ICC World Cup 2019 but he fought back brilliantly and the India skipper was able to slam two consecutive fifties against Australia and Pakistan to stamp his authority.

In India’s last World Cup match against Pakistan, Kohli got past Tendulkar to become the fastest to 11000 ODI runs. Against Afghanistan, Kohli has an opportunity to bag another world record.

Kohli is 104 runs away from reaching 20,000 international runs. If he gets it against Afghanistan, he will be the 12th batsman to this landmark and the 3rd Indian after Sachin Tendulkar (34,357 runs) and Rahul Dravid (24,208 runs).

Kohli, who has 11020 runs in ODIs, 6613 in Tests and 2263 in T20Is, will become the fastest to the landmark.

The record for the fastest to 20,000 international runs, however, doesn’t belong to Tendulkar alone. He shares it with West Indian legend Brian Lara. Both Tendulkar and Lara had taken 453 innings.

Kohli, on other hand, has played only 415 innings so far – 131 in Tests, 222 in ODIs and 62 in T20Is. He will once again beat both Tendulkar and Lara by a comprehensive margin. The third on the list is former Australia World Cup winning captain Ricky Ponting, who had taken 468 innings to get to the feat.

First Published: Jun 21, 2019 14:23 IST