Ro-Ko become third Indian pair to rake up 8000 international runs

The Ro-Ko pair, who returned to international action in the ongoing ODI series against England, became the third Indian pair on Thursday to rake up more than 8000 runs across all three formats of the game. They have become only the third Indian pair to achieve it after Sachin Tendulkar-Rahul Dravid & Sachin Tendulkar-Sourav Ganguly, both those pairs having finally breached the 10,000-mark.

 The landmark by Rohit & Virat, who now wear India colours only in ODI format, came in the ongoing second match of the three-match series against England at Cardiff. The Big Two stitched together a 60-run partnership for the second wicket but the Men in Blue couldn’t bat through 50 overs as they were all out for 233 in 44 overs.

Meanwhile, Kohli has got his 78th half-century in ODIs in this innings. He smashed a total of 65 runs off 66 deliveries, which includes eight fours. Interestingly, while Kohli has been a batter with more than one thousand runs in ODIs on English soil, he is yet to score a century in ODIs in England as his last century in this format came at Cardiff back in 2011. It was the same match where former Indian Captain & Coach Rahul Dravid played his last International Cricket match for India.

 The wicket of Kohli put the brakes on the scoring rate with Jofra Archer and Gus Atkinson claiming three scalps each. Shreyas Iyer helped himself to another fifty when he scored 66 off 71 deliveries to be the topscorer of the Indian innings.

India, who suffered a 4-0 whitewash in their T20I series, bounced back with a six-wicket win in the first of the ODIs. The final ODI is scheduled at the Lord's on Saturday.