Rohit is the highest-scoring visiting ODI batter in England. Kohli is second.
On 13 July 2026, two days before India begin a three-match ODI series against England, Cricket News published a statistical comparison of the touring squad's longest-serving white-ball batters. The headline finding, drawn from official ODI records, places Rohit Sharma on top of the list of visiting ODI run-scorers in England. His tally of 1,428 runs in 27 ODIs in England, at an average of 64.90 and a strike rate of 90.78, puts him clear of the rest of the field — and clear, in particular, of Virat Kohli, who sits second among visiting ODI batters in England with 1,349 runs in 33 ODIs at an average of 51.88 and a strike rate of 86.32.
Both men return to an India ODI squad now captained by Shubman Gill. The series, announced in late June, will be played across Edgbaston, Sophia Gardens and Lord's on 14, 16 and 19 July respectively, with the squad travelling to Birmingham on the eve of the opener. That context matters: the next 60 overs of competitive ODI cricket in England will be the first the pair have played on English soil since the 2023 World Cup qualifier cycle, and the first since the management reset that followed the 2024 T20 World Cup win.
What the numbers say, and what they don't.
Rohit's edge is built on conversion. Seven centuries to Kohli's one is the simplest summary — and the deepest. Both batters average well above 50, both score at close to a run a ball, and both have passed fifty more often than not across their careers. But Rohit's seven hundreds, including his highest of 137 not out, compress his bigger innings into a smaller match-count (27 vs 33). That is what lifts his average 13 runs per dismissal above Kohli's, and that is the gap that decides who sits at the top of the visiting-run-scorers list in England.
Kohli's record tells a different story: more fifties, fewer hundreds, more innings, a slightly lower strike rate. Across 33 ODIs in England he has reached fifty 13 times — once per century, twelve times in the fifty-to-ninety-nine range. The 107 against England at Cardiff in 2018 was the only time he cleared three figures. It is a record built on consistency rather than spikes, and a useful corrective to the idea that the two batters are interchangeable in fantasy XI terms. They are not.
Six innings that explain the difference.
Rohit's biggest English innings — the 137 not out, the other six centuries, and the cluster of fifties that lifted him past Kohli's mark — were not spread evenly across venues. The 137 not out came at Headingley in 2018, in a chase India completed with wickets in hand. The 2014 ODI series in England, played across Trent Bridge, Cardiff and Lord's, contained two of his big-hundreds-in-a-run at Trent Bridge and Cardiff. Lord's, by contrast, has been a less productive venue for him — a point worth noting before the series finale on 19 July.
Kohli's innings in England have come in harder conditions and a wider spread of roles. He has opened, batted at three and batted at four across his English career; the average drop relative to Rohit is partly explained by the fact that his England-innings sample includes more innings in the middle order, where the cost of an early dismissal is amplified by the batter coming in earlier in the innings than Rohit typically did. That is not a complaint — it is a record of what was asked of him. The 107 at Cardiff in 2018, and the consistent fifties around it, came while India was rebuilding after the 2017 Champions Trophy final; the conditions were not easy.
