Cricket has seen some of the very amazing records in past decades or so. Batsmen have scored runs galore contradicting the cricket pundits who believed that cricket would see void every now and then after the retirement of greats of a cricket generation. It hasn’t been the case and that has made the sport even more interesting and crowd puller. Today we’ll talk about five cricketers who reached fastest to 7000 ODI Runs.
5. Rohit Sharma
The IPL franchise Mumbai Indians’ captain and often seen as a regular future India Captain, Rohit Sharma finds himself on the fifth slot of the list of Cricketers fastest to 7000 ODI runs. Sharma, or the Hitman as fans call him, scored his 7000th run in his 187th match and 181th ODI innings.
Truth be told, past West Indian great Brian Lara also consumed as many ODI matches to reach this milestone, only he couldn’t equate or better the innings number for Sharma to wave past him in future. The record three ODI double centuries maker from India reached this feat on September 23, 2018 at the Asia Cup 2018 match against arch-rivals Pakistan.
Sharma was never in contention to top this list as he reached this milestone after all four who are listed above him on this record, and took more innings and matches.
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4. Sourav Ganguly
Before MS Dhoni and then Virat Kohli started bettering the captaincy records, Sourav Ganguly was seen as the best Indian Captain. The God of Off side, as the fans and cricket pundits would call him, finds himself on the fourth slot of the list of Cricketers fastest to 7000 ODI runs. Ganguly, or the Bengal Tiger which is another of his fans’ given names, scored his 7000th run in his 180th match and 174th ODI innings.
Truth be told, when this former India opener reached this milestone, he was the fastest to reach it and it stayed the same for next 13 years before AB de Villiers would pass the runs to be the fastest then. Sourav reached this feat on October 24, 2001 at Standard Bank Triangular Tournament at Paarl against Kenya.
3. AB de Villiers
The former South African Captain, or Mr. 360° as the fans and cricket pundits would call him, finds himself on the third slot of the list of Cricketers fastest to 7000 ODI runs. de Villiers, or the Proteas batting mainstay of recent past, scored his 7000th run in his 172th match and 166th ODI innings.
Before he reached the feat on November 14, 2014 on Proteas tour to Australia against the hosts at Perth, this list was led by former Indian Captain Sourav Ganguly. So, an interesting shift in the record as it moved from the hands of a former Indian Skipper to a Former South African Skipper. de Villiers stayed atop this list for little more than a year before Indian Batting Mainstay Virat Kohli would take over the table top from him.
2. Virat Kohli
IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Captain, finds himself on the second slot of the list of Cricketers fastest to 7000 ODI runs. Kohli, or the Indian batting mainstay, scored his 7000th run in his 169th match and 161st ODI innings.
Truth be told, when Kohli scored his 7000th, he updated the record sheet by becoming the fastest to 7000 ODI runs taking over the record from AB de Villiers. The Indian Top Order Batsman reached the feat on January 17, 2016 on India’s tour to Australia against the hosts at Melbourne. Kohli went on to score run a ball century in this match.
1. Hashim Amla
Another South African taking over from an Indian run getter- from Ganguly to ABD, ABD to Kohli, and now Kohli to Amla. The Proteas Opener leads the table of Cricketers fastest to 7000 ODI runs. Amla, or Mr. Consistent, scored his 7000th run in his 153rd match and 150th ODI innings.
Truth be told, this feat is the last one on the fastest ODI runs where Hashim Amla leads the table. The Right-handed Batsman reached the feat on May 29, 2017 on Proteas’ tour to England against the hosts at Lord’s. Amla went on to score little more than run a ball half century in this match.