3 Biggest Records Of Virat Kohli Against Australia

With still at least a couple of years left in his international career, Virat Kohli has already pushed himself in the list of the greatest batters of all time. The Delhi-born right-hander’s name is taken in the same breath as the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Viv Richards, Ricky Ponting, etc.

Having made his international debut for India in 2008, VK shattered numerous records as he went from a potential success to a legend; a batting maestro; the one to get the closest to Sachin Tendulkar.

Virat Kohli loved the challenge of playing against the mighty Australians

Virat Kohli

Currently, VK is the 6th highest run-scorer in international cricket with 25237 runs in 553 innings across all three formats, maintaining an average of 53 – that is despite his slumps in form for about 3 years. And his average is still better than those 5 batters who have amassed more runs than him – that is despite him playing a lot more T20Is – a format where it requires the batter to bat aggressively than the other two formats – that all those greats before him.

Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli. Image-Twitter

A major chunk of his runs and matches have come against Australia, one of the most dominating cricket teams of all time.

Ever since he stepped foot in international cricket, Kohli’s attitude has been very Australian-esque, and that even made the Aussies respect him.

The sledges from the Aussies, the fights on the field, the verbal battles off it – it all brought out the best of Cheeku the batsman, and he loved it all; he loved the challenge the Australian fast bowlers brought to him; he loved the challenge of playing and scoring against raucous Australian crowds on intimidating stadiums; he loved the love he got from the Indians for piling up big runs and recording victories against Australia, who had dominated India more often than not in the many decades gone by.

Virat Kohli’s all three format stats vs Australia:

1979 runs in 24 Tests at 48 with 8 centuries. Among Indians, only 4 players have score more Test runs against Australia, and only one – Tendulkar – has hit more centuries than VK against Australia.

His greatness against Australia is magnified by his numbers in Australia: 1352 runs in 13 Tests at 54 with 6 centuries; only Tendulkar has more runs – 1809 in 20 Tests at 53 with 6 centuries.

Kohli is hailed by many as the greatest ODI batsman – the format that has suited him the best, and the Australians have faced the brunt of it. Kohli has scored 2087 runs in 42 ODI knocks against Australia at an average of 53 with 8 centuries. His close competitors in stats- Rohit Sharma averages 61 in ODIs vs AUS while Tendulkar averages 43.

Virat Kohli, Mitchell Johnson
Image-Fox Cricket

It is in T20Is in Australia in particular, nobody from anywhere in the world comes close to Virat Kohli’s numbers.

In 10 T20I innings in Australia against Australia, Virat Kohli has whacked 451 runs at an average of 64 with 5 fifties! The next-best overall in the world is Dhawan with 271 runs in T20Is vs AUS in Australia.

Virat Kohli does like to play in Australia – he was the leading run-scorer in the T20 World Cup 2022 with 296 runs in 6 innings at a Bradman-esque average of 98 and 4 fifties, including that epic knock against Pakistan at the MCG.