Stats: Most runs for a visiting captain in a tour against the home team

Virat Kohli produced a dominant show in India’s tour of South Africa as he amassed 558 in the 6-match ODI series which are over 200 runs more than the 2nd highest run-getter. On his way to 558, Kohli became the first player in the ODI history to aggregate 500 runs in a bilateral series. Kohli stood as the top scorer in the Test series with 286 runs including which he made a total of 844 runs in the nine games on this tour so far to give himself a realistic chance of finishing with 1000 runs.

The Indian skipper is not only the leading run-getter in both Test and ODI series but was the only centurion in the 3-match Test series and scored three hundreds in the 6-match ODI series where remaining players collectively hit three tons only. He has got the best average and the highest individual scores in both the Test and ODI series. In this form, it won’t be a surprise if Kohli ends up leading all batting charts in the 3-match T20I series.

With the 844 runs in nine matches, Kohli now holds the record for scoring most runs in an away tour against the home team while leading his side. In this process, Virat Kohli surpassed Graeme Smith’s tally of 803 runs against the England team in South Africa’s 2003 tour of Europe. In fact, Smith aggregated 937 runs in that tour that included his runs against the Windies team who were a part of the Triangular ODI series along with England and South Africa.

The previous highest runs for an Indian skipper in an away tour was 645 runs by Rahul Dravid during the 2006 Windies tour. Kohli broke the Indian record in the 4th match of the ODI series and already bettered the previous highest by 199 runs. He needs another 156 runs to breach the 1000-run mark on the tour. The Indian captain already holds the record for most runs as a player in a South Africa tour. The current England Test skipper Joe Root scored 779 runs during their tour of South Africa in 2015/16 season.

Most runs for a visiting captain in a tour against the home team:

(Stats as on February 16, 2018)