Virat Kohli overtakes MS Dhoni, breaks this big record

Bengaluru: Team India’s senior batsman Virat Kohli became the second highest international cricketer to play for India in all formats, surpassing former captain MS Dhoni, despite being out for zero in the first innings in the first Test against New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday.

Virat Kohli played his 536th international match as soon as he took the field here on Thursday. On the other hand, Dhoni took part in 535 international matches for India between 2004 and 2019.

After making his international debut in ODIs in Sri Lanka in 2008, Virat Kohli has been a part of 115 Tests, 295 ODIs and 125 T20s, in which he has scored 27,041 international runs. He has also captained India in 213 matches including 68 Tests, 95 ODIs and 50 T20s.

Virat Kohli is now only behind legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who has earned 664 caps while playing for India from 1989 to 2013. He also holds the record for being the most capped international cricketer in the world. Among active cricketers, Kohli is followed by Indian captain Rohit Sharma (486 caps) and Ravindra Jadeja (346 caps).

The 35-year-old is eighth in terms of most appearances in Tests for India with 116 matches. He also scored 8, 947 runs in the longer format, just 53 runs behind becoming the fourth Indian to complete 9000 runs in Tests after Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar. However, he was dismissed without opening the account in India’s first innings.

Apart from this, Virat Kohli had become the fastest player to reach 27,000 international runs on the fourth day of the second Test against Bangladesh last month. He surpassed Tendulkar’s record of 623 innings as he achieved the feat in just 594 innings. He is the only cricketer to complete 27,000 international runs in less than 600 innings.