Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma on the verge of major milestones heading into ODI series against West Indies

Indian captain Rohit Sharma and senior batter Virat Kohli will be keen to continue the impressive form they displayed in the Test matches against West Indies as the focus shifts to white-ball cricket. The Men in Blue will take on the Windies in three ODIs, with the first one to be played at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados on Thursday, July 27.

Rohit and Kohli were among the top three run-getters in the Test series, a chart led by debutant opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (266 runs). The Indian captain finished second, with 240 runs at an average of 80, while Kohli was third, compiling 197 runs at an average of 98.50, including a hundred - his first away from home in nearly five years.

Speaking of the ODI series, both Rohit and Kohli are on the verge of major milestones. The Indian skipper needs 175 runs to become the sixth Indian player to score 10000 runs in one-dayers. The 36-year-old has notched up 9825 runs from 243 ODIs at an average of 48.63, with 30 hundreds and 48 fifties to his name.

Among Indian batters, only Sachin Tendulkar (18426), Kohli (12898), Sourav Ganguly (11363), Rahul Dravid (10889), and MS Dhoni (10773) have more one-day runs. If Rohit crosses the 10000-run mark in the series against West Indies, he would become the second-quickest to the mark.

Rohit has so far played 236 innings in ODI cricket. Kohli (205 innings) holds the record for being the quickest batter to reach the mark, followed by Tendulkar (259) and Ganguly (263).

As for Kohli, he needs only 102 runs to complete 13000 runs in ODIs. The Indian run machine has amassed 12898 runs in 274 matches at an average of 57.32, with 46 hundreds and 65 fifties.

The 34-year-old is the fifth-leading run-getter in one-day cricket after Tendulkar, Kumar Sangakkara (14234), Ricky Ponting (13704), and Sanath Jayasuriya (13430).

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Rohit Sharma opens up on the importance of West Indies ODIs

At a press conference ahead of the first ODI against West Indies, Rohit stated that the series is important for them because there are many new players, who haven’t played many games and need chances to prove themselves.

He elaborated:

“It’s important to give them exposure, they should be played and given a role and we will also get a chance to see that if they have been given a role, how they are performing in the role, how they are responding. We had focused on all these things before the T20 World Cup last year that the new players who have come in the team how they perform in the roles they have been given.”

After the opening ODI on Thursday, the subsequent matches will be played in Barbados and Trinidad on July 29 and August 1.