Virat Kohli has become the fourth Indian to reach the 9000 Test runs milestone, achieving this during the ongoing Test against New Zealand at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Promoting himself to No. 3 in Shubman Gill’s absence, Kohli reached the landmark in India’s second innings, joining the ranks of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Sunil Gavaskar.
In his 116th match and 197th innings, Kohli, who notched up his 31st Test half-century, is the slowest of the four to the milestone. Despite a strong performance, he was caught behind off Glenn Phillips for 70 on Day 3’s final delivery, after a 136-run partnership with Sarfaraz Khan that steadied India following a first-innings collapse to Rachin Ravindra’s century.
Tendulkar leads the overall tally with 15,921 runs from 200 matches, followed by Dravid with 13,288 from 164, and Gavaskar with 10,122 from 125.
Kohli, who recently surpassed 27,000 international runs during the Kanpur Test against Bangladesh, joined an elite group including Tendulkar, Ponting, and Sangakkara. Breaking Tendulkar’s record, Kohli became the fastest to the 27,000-run mark, taking 594 innings—29 fewer than Tendulkar, who reached it in 623 innings in 2007.
In the overall tally of batters with the most Test runs, Tendulkar leads the list, followed by Ponting, who has accumulated 13,378 runs. Joe Root is the only active cricketer with over 10,000 runs, having scored 12,716 runs from 148 innings.
