Scoring 15000 international runs is a terrific achievement for any batsman. Unless the player is equally consistent across formats, it is an impossible feat to achieve. Till now, eight Indians have got to the mark, with Rohit Sharma being the latest entrant. In this article, we take a look at the list of five Indians who are the fastest to reach 15000 International runs so far.
5) Rohit Sharma – 396 Innings
Rohit Sharma stands at No.5 on this list of Indians who are the fastest to reach 15000 International runs in the game’s history. The opener got to the mark in the recent Test series against England. Rohit was India’s best batsman in that tournament.
If you take a look at Rohit’s stats, he has scored the most runs in ODIs. His career took off a little late in Tests and only recently, the Mumbai cricketer notched up 3000 runs for India in the whites. A prolific run-scorer in ODIs, Rohit will target to complete 10000 runs in the format within next year.
4) Virender Sehwag – 371 Innings
Virender Sehwag might appear as a brash cricketer but amidst all this, he consistently scored runs for India. Although his game suited to the limited-overs format, he also achieved enormous success in Tests. In fact, he was the first Indian to score a triple-century in the five-day format.
When Virender Sehwag crossed the phase of the new ball, he usually stuck it out to score big. Hence, this helped him notch up heavy scores, all of which contributed to him getting to 15000 International runs.
3) Rahul Dravid – 368 Innings
Rahul Dravid stands at No.3 in this list of Indians who are the fastest to reach 15000 International runs. He currently is the second highest international run-getter for Team India with 24064 runs in 599 innings. Rahul has got 13288 Test runs while in the ODIs, he got 10998 runs.
Dravid’s peak form coincided with that of Sachin Tendulkar and hence, the “Wall” often went off the radar. However, Dravid, too, carved his niche by doing well in tough conditions when the other Indian batsmen were failing. Dravid also captained India for a few years after Sourav Ganguly’s tenure.
2) Sachin Tendulkar – 356 Innings
Having scored 34357 runs in 782 innings, no player has made more than Sachin Tendulkar in the history of the game. The Master Blaster took a total of 356 innings to breach the mark. For many years, he held the record for being the fastest cricketer to do it.
While players consider 15000 international runs as a landmark, the legendary cricketer got 15310 runs only as an opener, that too, only in ODI cricket. Sachin also faced some dangerous bowling attacks to attain the record. Sachin’s record list is very long and it needs to be seen if any cricketer would get close to it soon.
1) Virat Kohli – 333 Innings
At the time when Virat Kohli scored 15000 International runs, he had made 8587 ODI runs, 4,658 Test runs, and over 1,750 T20I runs. The current Indian skipper just took 333 innings to achieve the feat. He overtook Hashim Amla’s record of 336 innings and stands at the top of the overall list, as well.
While in Tests, Virat was off to a slow start, he had a brisk beginning to his ODI career. In the initial tournaments, he did not get a consistent slot to bat. However, after he made the move to No.3, Virat broke multiple records, among which, getting the fastest to 15000 international runs was one.
