Cape Town - With his efforts in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, India captain Virat Kohli overtook Rahul Dravid on the list of top scorers for India in overseas Tests in any calendar year.
Kohli missed out on a century, being dismissed by Mitchell Starc for 82 on Thursday on day two of the third Test against Australia. Yet, it was enough for him to go ahead of Dravid as the most successful Indian batsman abroad in a calendar year with 1138.
Dravid had made 1137 runs from 11 matches in 2002. This included centuries in the West Indies (144*, Georgetown) and England (115 in Nottingham, 148 in Leeds and 217 at The Oval), and decent returns in New Zealand. He had four half-centuries as well from 18 innings, averaging 66.88 for the period.
Kohli's knocks have come in South Africa, England and Australia. He too has four centuries so far: 153 at Centurion, 149 in Birmingham, 103 in Nottingham and 123 in Perth – to go with five fifties, giving him an average of 54.19. It puts him on 1138 runs for the year, just ahead of Dravid, but he's not necessarily done yet.
The India captain still has a chance to add to his tally in the second innings of the Boxing Day Test.
He will need 75 runs to overtake former Proteas captain Graeme Smith as having scored the most Test runs away from home in a calendar year.
Smith scored 1212 runs in 11 Tests in 2008.