Virat Kohli Chases New Milestones As Sri Lanka ODIs Come Closer

New Delhi, July 25: As star Indian batter Virat Kohli gears up for his international cricket return during the ODI series against Sri Lanka, all eyes will be on this recently-crowned T20 World Champion to break some more records, unlock some new milestones and add to his century count.

India's tour of Sri Lanka will start July 27. The tour will kick off with a three-match T20I series, followed by a three-match ODI series, which will start on August 2. The Pallekele International Stadium will be hosting the T20I leg of the series, while the R Premadasa is getting to host the 50-over matches. The three ODIs will be played August 2, 4 and 7.

In the three-match ODI series, fans will be hoping to see a lot of runs from Virat's willow, as he is just 152 runs away from getting to his 14,000 ODI runs. In 292 ODIs, he has scored 13,848 runs at an average of 58.67 and a strike rate of over 93, with 50 centuries, the most by a player and 72 fifties. His best score is 183.

If Virat completes 14,000 runs, he will be only the third player after the Indian icon Sachin Tendulkar (18,426 runs) and Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara (14,234 runs) to get to this milestone.

On the other hand, Virat is also marching towards 27,000 international runs. In 530 international matches, he has scored 26,884 runs at an average of 53.55, with 80 centuries and 140 fifties. His best score is 254*. Just 116 more runs will help him get to this milestone.

He will become the fourth player to reach 27,000 international runs besides Tendulkar (34,357 runs), Sangakkara (28,016 runs) and Australian legend Ricky Ponting (27,483 runs).

Both teams will be taking to the field with new head coaches. While legendary all-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya has been named as the interim head coach for Lankan Lions, this will also be the first assignment for former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir as the head coach, succeeding the T20 World Cup-winning coach Rahul Dravid.

India's last tour of Sri Lanka for a bilateral white-ball series came back in July 2021, with Dravid coaching the Shikhar Dhawan-led side. India won the ODI series 2-1, while Sri Lanka secured the T20I series by the same margin.

Indian T20I Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj.

Indian ODI Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (vc), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana.

(ANI)