Many records have been made in T20 cricket, but there is one record which has become the definition of “impossible” even today. This is a feat which perhaps no batsman will be able to touch in the coming years. We are talking about India’s run machine Virat Kohli, who created such a history in T20 format in the year 2016 which no one has been able to break till date.
973 runs in one tournament!
Virat Kohli, while playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL 2016 season, scored 973 runs in just 16 matches. This is the highest number of runs scored by a player in any T20 tournament. Kohli was in full “Virat mode” that season. He scored a total of 4 centuries and 7 half-centuries in the entire season, while his highest score was 113 runs.
His batting was so tremendous that the bowlers of the opposing team looked helpless in every match. Kohli hit 83 fours and 38 sixes in that season. That means 498 runs were scored from boundaries alone. This figure shows how he dominated the opposition team in every match.
RCB had reached the final, but…
Thanks to Virat’s bat, RCB had reached the final, but Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) broke their dream of winning the title. RCB had to face defeat by 8 runs in the final, and Kohli’s team’s dream of winning the trophy remained unfulfilled. However, after that season, Virat Kohli’s name got registered in the golden letters of cricket history.
Kohli’s wish fulfilled after 18 years
After the defeat of IPL 2016, RCB came close again and again but could not win the trophy. Finally, in the year 2025, RCB created history. The team won the IPL trophy for the first time. Virat Kohli had tears of joy in his eyes after defeating Punjab Kings at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Anushka Sharma, the entire staff of the team and the fans, everyone celebrated this victory like an “emotional festival”.
Virat Kohli’s T20 statistics
Virat Kohli has so far scored 13,543 runs in 414 T20 matches, in which his average is more than 41. In IPL alone, he has scored 8,661 runs in 267 matches, which includes 8 centuries and 63 half-centuries. Even in IPL 2025, his bat spoke volumes. He again became the most reliable batsman with 657 runs in 15 matches.
