ODI cricket has seen some of the great world-class batsmen grace the game. Their unbelievable batting ability coupled with the consistency of scoring heaps of runs has always set them apart from the rest. There have been only six batsmen in world cricket who have been able to reach the magical 12000-run mark in ODI cricket. Here are the fastest players to reach 12,000 ODI runs and the number of innings it took them.
1. Virat Kohli – 242*
Indian skipper Virat Kohli is arguably India’s best batsman across all three formats. But his numbers in ODIs are outstanding, to say the least. In 242 innings, he managed to cross 12,000 runs which is the fastest by any ODI batsman.
He currently has 12040 ODI runs to his name and at an outstanding average of 59.31 has an unbelievable 43 hundreds to his name as well. The way he is batting, he is likely to shatter many more records by the time he retires.
2. Sachin Tendulkar -300
Sachin Tendulkar is known as the God of Indian cricket and rightly so, given his brilliant numbers in both white-ball and red-ball cricket. Tendulkar dominated bowling attacks all over the world and was the first ODI batsman ever to cross the 12,000-run mark, doing it in 300 innings. In the 463 ODIs that he played for India, he is the highest run-scorer ever in ODIs with 18426 runs to his name and has 49 ODI hundreds, which is still a record. He is probably the greatest batsman to have ever played the game of cricket and his records prove that.
3. Ricky Ponting – 314
Ricky Ponting is arguably the greatest batsman Australia have ever produced. He led by example with the bat and was unbelievably consistent in both ODIs as well as Tests. Australia have won the 2003 and 2007 World Cup under his captaincy and have been able to dominate world cricket.
He is the third-fastest batsman to reach 12,000 ODI runs and managed to do it in 314 innings. Scoring 29 ODI centuries, he ended with 13589 runs to his name.
4. Kumar Sangakkara – 336
Sri Lanka started to dominate world cricket and began performing exceedingly well in ODIs especially after the 1996 World Cup triumph. The Island Nation produced many exciting world-class batsmen that were absolutely brilliant for them and Kumar Sangakkara was one of them.
In 395 ODIs that he played, he scored 13975 runs with 25 centuries to his name. He crossed the 12,000 run mark in 336 innings, which remains the fourth-fastest in the history of ODI cricket.
5. Sanath Jayasuriya – 379
Another batting great from Sri Lanka, Sanath Jayasuriya was the first of the modern pinch-hitters who terrorized the opposition at the top of the order. He was instrumental in Sri Lanka winning the 1996 World Cup and will go down as one of the legends of Sri Lanka cricket. He was the fifth-fastest to reach 12,000 runs and did it in 379 innings.
He scored 13364 runs in 441 ODIs for Sri Lanka with 28 hundreds to his name. He will go down as one of the most dangerous white-ball openers the game of cricket has ever seen.
6. Mahela Jayawardene – 399
The sixth and the last batsman to make this elite list is another Sri Lankan by the name Mahela Jayawardene. A brilliant cricketing mind, Jayawardene was a mainstay in Sri Lanka’s middle-order for a long time and was instrumental in their run to the final of the 2007 and 2011 World Cups.
He reached the 12,000-run mark in 399 innings and scored 12,381 runs in 443 ODIs for Sri Lanka with 18 hundreds to his name. He is surely one of the great batsmen Sri Lanka has produced.
