India captain Virat Kohli on Thursday achieved another milestone in his cricket career. He completed 23,000 runs in international cricket while playing against England at Oval, England. He took just 490 matches to became the fastest to achieve the landmark by overtaking Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting.
Fastest to 23k international runs (Inns)
490 Virat Kohli*
522 Sachin Tendulkar
544 Ricky Ponting
551 Jacques Kallis
568 Kumar Sangakkara
576 Rahul Dravid
645 M Jayawardene
Kohli is now only behind Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar when it comes to most runs in international cricket for India. He has slammed as many as 70 centuries and 116 fifties in his career. Kohli averages 55+ in international cricket with 440 matches to his name.
| Player | Span | Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | 100 | 50 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SR Tendulkar | 1989-2013 | 664 | 782 | 74 | 34357 | 248* | 48.52 | 100 | 164 | 34 |
| R Dravid | 1996-2012 | 504 | 599 | 71 | 24064 | 270 | 45.57 | 48 | 145 | 20 |
| V Kohli | 2008-2021 | 440* | 490 | 74 | 23003 | 254* | 55.29 | 70 | 116 | 29 |
| SC Ganguly | 1992-2008 | 421 | 485 | 40 | 18433 | 239 | 41.42 | 38 | 106 | 29 |
| MS Dhoni | 2004-2019 | 535 | 523 | 141 | 17092 | 224 | 44.74 | 15 | 108 | 21 |
Earlier today, Kohli added another feather to his cap by becoming the only captain to lead India in 10 or more Tests in a country outside India. He achieved the feat when went out for a toss against England at Kennington Oval. He has now eclipsed MS Dhoni who had led India in 9 matches in England. Sunil Gavaskar also features in the list with 8 matches against Pakistan.
Kohli will now look to make amendments with the bat and end his century drought. The 32-year-old managed to score a fifty in the third Test but failed to convert it into a century. He has crossed 50+ innings without a century across all formats. He had scored his last ton against Bangladesh on November 22, 2019. It has been 650 days since he brought his international century. Kohli has been facing off problems against the likes of James Anderson and Ollie Robinson in the ongoing Test series.
He needs to quickly find solutions to play against Anderson and Robinson if India wants to stage a comeback after losing the third test by innings and 76 runs.
