Virat Kohli's return to his Royal Challengers Bangalore home ground on Wednesday ended in heartbreak -- a first-ball duck even as India looked to complete a 3-0 series sweep against Afghanistan. Batting first, India's much-vaunted batting line-up was however left reeling by the visiting bowlers at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. (IND Vs AFG 3rd T20I Scorecard | Streaming)
The former India captain entered the match with 11994 runs in 375 20-over cricket matches, an aggregate Kohli had amassed while representing the national teams, Indian XI, Delhi and RCB. Chinnaswamy Stadium, for that matter of fact, is the home ground for his Indian Premier League outfit, the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Six more runs and he would have become the first Indian to score 12000 runs in T20 cricket. But the 35-year-old perished first ball, scooping up and caught by Ibrahim Zadran at mid-off. And the wicket-taker, Fareed Ahmad was on a hat-trick, having already removed opener Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Kohli, who missed the series opener due to personal reasons, scored 29 runs in the second match. For the record, this was his fifth duck in 117 T20I matches. He has 4037 runs for India in the format at an average of 51.75 with one century, an unbeaten 122 against the same opponents in Dubai during the 2022 Asia Cup.
He still owns the world records for most runs and most fifties (38) though, and was the first batter in men's cricket to reach 3000 and 3500-run marks. In fact, Kohli is the only one to aggregate 4000 runs in men's T20Is, with his successor Rohit Sharma second with 3878 in 151 matches.
The all-time list of T20 run scorers is led by West Indies legend Chris Gayle (14562 runs in 463 matches), who played for more than 20 teams, including RCB, Chattogram Challengers in the Bangladesh Premier League, Jamaica Tallawahs in Caribbean Premier League, Lahore Qalandars in Pakistan Super League, etc.
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Pakistan great Shoaib Malik (12993 in 525) and another Windies big hitter, Kieron Pollard (12454 in 640) complete the top three. Both legends have had stints with more than a dozen teams each.
Rohit Sharma, the India captain, entered the match with 11035 runs in 425 matches, and he was eighth on the all-time list, behind England's Alex Hales (11807 in 427) and the Australian pair of David Warner (11745 in 358) and Aaron Finch (11458 in 387), respectively.
After getting out for ducks in the first two matches of the series, Sharma finally ticked the scorecard with a run -- a single off the third ball -- in the second over, to end what many termed as a barren run, a worrisome phase for the veteran who's trying to stay relevant in a T20 World Cup year.
But the skipper showed no signs of nerves as he comically enquired one of the umpires about a shot he had played in the previous over. The opener was heard saying that he got a huge nick of the bat for that four which was given as four byes (off the penultimate ball of the previous over), while also referring to his two ducks.
India, of course, started the final match of their first-ever white-ball bilateral series against Afghanistan. The hosts had registered identical six-wicket victories to seal the series in Mohali and Indore, with two different player of the match winners, Shivam Dube and Axar Patel, respectively. But at the time filing the report, they were struggling at 22 for four wickets at the end of five overs.
Both sides have three changes for the series finale, with Sanju Samson, Avesh Khan and Kuldeep Yadav in for Axar Patel, Jitesh Kumar and Arshdeep Singh. The visitors have also made multiple changes.
Playing XIs
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Mukesh Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Avesh Khan
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran (c), Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Qais Ahmad, Mohammad Saleem Safi, Fareed Ahmad Malik.
