Royal Challengers Bangaluru star batter Virat Kohli on Friday achieved a massive feat in T20 cricket. He became the first Indian batter in T20 history to score 12000 runs. Kohli reached the milestone during RCB’s IPL 2024 game against Chennai Super Kings at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. With this, Kohli joined the elite list that has the likes of Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard. West Indies’ T20 legend Gayle tops the chart with 14562 T20 runs, while Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik holds the second spot with 13360 runs. Star all-rounder from West Indies, Pollard, is at the third position with 12900 runs and England’s Alex Hales is at the fourth spot with 12319 runs. Then comes David Warner (12065 runs), who is followed by Kohli. The India star achieved the feat in his 377th T20 game and 360th innings.

Fresh from a break, Virat Kohli is in a great frame of mind. The player had skipped India’s five-match Test series against England that preceded IPL 2024. Kohli missed the entire series as he welcomed his second child in February this year.

Mo Bobat, RCB’s Director of Cricket, who has been closely watching Kohli during training, had reavealed that the great batter was hitting the ball superbly.

“Virat’s in a good place. We all know he’s an absolute champion cricketer. So he’s at a stage of his career, in a stage of his experience now, where most of what he does is pretty hardwired into him. He’s coming in fresh, which is what we’re excited about,” Bobat had said at the pre-match press conference ahead of RCB’s tournament opener.

“Kohli has had a good bit of time off from his cricket. He’s in a great frame of mind. He’s had good family time, he’s fresh with his energy and he’s looking forward to getting involved. He’s had a few hits with us over the last few days and he’s hitting the ball brilliantly,” he had added.

(With ANI Inputs)