India batter Virat Kohli recorded his 48th ODI century in the World Cup 2023 match against Bangladesh on October 19 and became the fastest to reach 26,000 international runs. Kohli scored unbeaten 103 off 97 balls as India won its fourth match on the trot in the tournament to go on top of the points table.

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The modern master now has 26,026 runs in all international games he has played in 511 innings. Kohli also pipped former India cricket Sachin Tendulkar to become the fastest to reach the milestone, taking 33 innings less then the former batter. 

Kohli is only the fourth batter in the history of cricket to go past 26K runs (8,676 in Tests, 13,342 runs in ODIs and 4,008 in T20Is), behind Sachin Tendulkar – 34,357 runs, Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara – 28,016 runs and Australia’s Ricky Ponting – 27,483 runs.

ALSO READ | ODI World Cup 2023: ‘Kohli didn’t want to complete 100,’ reveals KL Rahul after India beat Bangladesh

Virat’s 48th ODI ton also took him within the touching distance of Sachin’s world record 49 ODI tons and with the form he’s in, Kohli is primed to take over Sachin in the ongoing ODI World Cup itself. Overall, Kohli has 78 tons to his name in the international cricket (29 in Tests, 48 in ODIs and one in T20Is) – second only to Sachin’s record 100 centuries (49 in ODIs and 51 in Tests).

Kohli was batting on 97 with India needing just two runs to win while chasing 261. He hit a six in the 42nd over to reach his 100 and take India home by seven wickets. KL Rahul, his partner on the crease during the winning moment, revealed after that match that Kohli was not too sure about going for the 100.

“He [Kohli] was confused, he said it will not look too nice, not to take the single, it’s still a World Cup, and it’s still a big stage. ‘I don’t want to look like I am just trying to get the milestone’,” Rahul told Star Sports after the match. 

“But I said, I mean it is not won but still I think we’ll win quite easily, so if you can get to the milestone why not, you must try. And he did that in the end. I wasn’t going to run the singles anyway,” he added.

India next play against New Zealand, who are also unbeaten so far with four wins in four games, on October 22 in Dharamsala.

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