Batting superstar Virat Kohli was back in action for India on Sunday (October 19). But in the ongoing first India-Australia ODI at Optus Stadium in Perth, the legendary right-handed batter, who has 14,181 runs to his credit in 50-over matches, failed to even open his account. He was sent back to the pavilion by left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc on the first ball of the seventh over of India’s innings.
Australia’s spin bowling all-rounder Cooper Connolly dived to his left to complete Kohli’s catch.
Mitchell Starc gets Virat Kohli. pic.twitter.com/zsdEltOHRe
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) October 19, 2025
— Mistor billa ‘ (@Dhonivilla) October 19, 2025
The former India captain was the second India batter to get out on Sunday.
Before him, Rohit was sent back to the pavilion by Josh Hazlewood on the fourth ball of the fourth over.
Rohit was caught by Matt Renshaw in the second slip after scoring 8 runs from 14 balls.
Kohli, who last played an ODI match for India on March 9, 2025, against New Zealand in Dubai during the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final, scored 84 runs against Australia in the semifinal match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
Kohli missed multiple records
In the first India-Australia ODI, Kohli had a chance to break multiple batting records. If he had managed to score at least 54 runs, then he would have leapfrogged Kumar Sangakkara and jumped to the No. 2 position in the list of batters with the most runs in ODI cricket.
Sangakkara played a total of 404 ODIs from 2000 to 2015 and amassed a total of 14,234 runs, whereas Kohli has 14,181 runs to his name in 303 ODIs.
Also, if Kohli had scored 68 runs, then he would have broken Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most runs in white-ball cricket. Tendulkar finished his career with 18,426 runs in ODIs and 10 runs in T20Is (total 18,436), whereas Kohli has 14,181 runs to his credit in ODIs and 4,188 runs in T20Is (total 18,369 runs).
Playing XIs for 1st IND-AUS ODI
India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (C), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh
Australia: Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (C), Matthew Short, Josh Philippe (WK), Matt Renshaw, Cooper Connolly, Mitchell Owen, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Ellis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Josh Hazlewood
