Virat Kohli in action© BCCI
Senior batter Virat Kohli leapfrogged ex-captain MS Dhoni to become the second-most-capped international cricketer for India across formats during the first Test against New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Kohli marked his 536th international appearance when he took the field here on Thursday . Dhoni, on the other hand, featured for India in 535 international macthes between 2004 and 2019. After making his international debut in an ODI in Sri Lanka in 2008, Kohli has been part of 115 Tests, 295 ODIs, and 125 T20Is, scoring 27,041 international runs. He also captained India in 213 matches – 68 Tests, 95 ODIs, and 50 T20Is.
Kohli is now only behind legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar, who has 664 caps playing for India from 1989 to 2013 and also has the record of most being the capped international cricketer in the world. Among active cricketers, Kohli is followed by India captain Rohit Sharma (486 caps) and Ravindra Jadeja (346 caps) in the list.
In terms of Test appearances for India, The 35-year-old is tied for eighth with 116th caps and. He also amassed 8947 runs in the longer format, just 53 runs short of becoming only the fourth Indian to complete 9000 runs in Tests after Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar.
Moreover, Kohli has become the fastest player to reach 27,000 international runs on Day 4 of the second Test against Bangladesh last month, surpassing Tendulkar’s record of 623 innings as he achieved the feat in just 594, the only cricketer ever to finish 27000 international runs in under 600 outings.
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