Virat Kohli 17 runs away from breaking MS Dhoni's world record in 3rd ODI against Australia. | Photo Credit: AP

Key Highlights Virat Kohli is 17 runs away from breaking MS Dhoni's world record Virat Kohli will be on the verge of surpassing MS Dhoni in the 3rd ODI against Australia on Sunday India and Australia have both won a game each and the series is locked at 1-1

Indian skipper Virat Kohli will be looking to break MS Dhoni's world record when he steps out to bat in the third and final ODI against Australia at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday. Kohli slammed a brilliant 78 off 76 balls in the second ODI in Rajkot on Friday and now stands just 17 runs away from surpassing Dhoni and break his record.

If Kohli manages to score 17 runs against Australia in the third ODI on Sunday, he will become the fastest captain to score 5,000 ODI runs. Dhoni currently holds the record having achieved the feat in 127 innings as captain. Kohli currently has 4983 runs in 81 innings as captain of the Indian team.

Kohli will become the fourth Indian captain to achieve the milestone of 5,000 ODI runs as captain after Dhoni (6641 runs), Mohammad Azharuddin (5239 runs) and Sourav Ganguly (5104 runs). He will become the eighth captain overall to complete 5,000 runs in ODIs. Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting holds the record for most ODI runs as captain with 8497 runs.

Fewest innings taken to 5000 ODI runs as captain:

127 MS Dhoni

131 R Ponting

135 G Smith

136 S Ganguly

151 M Azharuddin

After a rare failure in the first ODI where he was dismissed cheaply after scoring 16 off 14 balls, Kohli bounced back to play a big knock in the second encounter on Friday. He scored a fine 78 and helped India post a big total of 340 runs on the board in 50 overs. India defended the total comfortably and won the game by 36 runs.

Kohli had demoted himself to number 4 slot in the first ODI in order to accommodate both KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan in the top three, however, the move backfired for India which saw the Indian skipper return to his original number three spot in the second ODI. Kohli has so far scored 94 runs in the ongoing series and will be looking to end the three-match rubber with a big knock in Bengaluru.