India vs South Africa 2020: Virat Kohli close to notching up yet another feat in ODIs

India is set to play a 3-match ODI series against South Africa which will begin from March 12 at Dharamsala. This series is also important from skipper Virat Kohli's point of view as he is close to achieving a unique landmark in ODI cricket.

The Indian skipper now is just 133 runs away from completing 12,000 ODI runs, a feat that is achieved by only five other batsmen, the first of them being Sachin Tendulkar. All the batsmen have taken more than 300 innings to achieve this landmark while Kohli has just played 239 innings and is likely to become the fastest to achieve this feat.

Time taken to reach 12,000 ODI runs:

Mahela Jayawardene (399 innings)

Sanath Jayasuriya (379 innings)

Kumar Sangakkara (336 innings)

Ricky Ponting (314 innings)

Sachin Tendulkar (300 innings)

Kohli recently has been hit with a very bad patch of form as he was able to score only 75 runs in the 3-match ODI series against New Zealand. He was also able to score just a single fifty-plus score on the entire tour of New Zealand, something that is pretty unusual. With his comments on ODI cricket being 'less relevant' this year, it will be interesting to see his intent and tactics in the ODI series against South Africa.

India will be buoyed by the comeback of Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in their squad. While Kumar was suffering from a sports hernia, Pandya had undergone a back surgery and had played his last ODI for India in the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. He played his last international game against South Africa in the T20 series in September last year. Kohli will be hopeful that the services of these two would lift the spirits of the Indian team and would help them get back to winning ways.