India vs West Indies: 3 players in the race for most ODI runs in 2019

The upcoming ODI series between India and West Indies will be the last ODI series to be played in 2019. While many players put on outstanding individual performances with the bat at various times during the year, there were some players who did it on a consistent basis right through the year. The year is approaching its end and since there is just one more series remaining, any drastic changes in the run-scoring chart is not expected. However, the positions in the top 5 can change because 3 batsmen out of the top 5 are going to take part in the India-West Indies series.

Here are the 3 players who could finish with most ODI runs in 2019.

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#3 Shai Hope

Shai Hope has been consistent for the Windies

Shai Hope has also been in incredible form in the ODIs in 2019. The wicketkeeper-batsman has 1123 runs to his name in 25 games. Hope shone with the bat in the last ODI series that West Indies played against Afghanistan as he scored 229 in 3 games at an average of 229.00. He scored a hundred and a fifty on a couple of tricky pitches in that series. The 26-year old would like to carry that momentum into the series against India and make a defining impact with the bat.

Also see - India vs West Indies schedule 2019

If he has to get to the top of the run-scoring chart, he will have to score heavily in all the ODIs in the series against India and will have to hope that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma fail because if they don’t, Hope’s chances of topping the chart will reduce significantly.

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#2 Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma after his century in the World Cup against Bangladesh

This has been a memorable year for Rohit Sharma in ODI cricket. He became the first batsman in the history of the game to score 5 ODI hundreds in a single edition of the World Cup, enroute to winning the golden bat with a total of 648 runs at an average of 81.00 and a strike rate of 98.33.

Sharma is second in the run-scoring chart in the ODIs in 2019, but he is not too far behind Virat Kohli and is surely in with a chance to go past his captain if he has a good time with the bat against West Indies. With 1232 runs in 25 games, he is only 56 runs away from Kohli’s tally of runs and he can bridge that gap with a couple of big hundreds which is very much possible given his recent form with the bat in white-ball cricket.

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#1 Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli has had yet another stellar year in ODIs

Virat Kohli is currently the highest run-scorer in 50-over cricket in 2019 which is not really a surprise. His consistency in this format of the game is incredible and he is also the no. 1 batsman in the world in the ICC ODI rankings. Kohli had finished with the most ODI runs in 2017 and 2018 as well which testifies his consistency in ODI cricket.

The Indian captain has played 23 ODIs in 2019 so far and has scored 1288 runs at an average of 64.40 and a strike rate of 95.90 with 5 hundreds and 6 fifties. He had an outstanding World Cup too where he scored 443 runs in 9 games at an average close to 55.