Virat Kohli becomes 5th highest international run-scorer

Virat Kohli overtook Jacques Kallis during the second Test against West Indies, en route to his 121 in Trinidad.

Kohli registered his 29th Test century on the second day of the ongoing second Test against the West Indies in Port of Spain. He scored a total of 121 runs shepherding India’s innings to safety after they were struggling at 182/4 at one stage after a good start. During his exceptional knock, Kohli also entered the top 5 list of players with the most runs scored in international cricket.

He went past Kallis who featured in 519 international matches in his career and went on to amass a mammoth 25,534 runs at an average of 49.10 with 62 centuries ad 149 fifties to his name. He needed 73 more runs before the Test against the Windies to overtake Kallis and is now 375 runs behind fourth-place Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka.

Kohli was also playing his 500th international game, becoming only the fourth Indian to achieve the feat. Overall, nine other players before him had represented their countries in 500 matches across all formats.

Also Read: Virat Kohli plays 500th international game, becomes 4th Indian to reach the milestone

Top 5 run-scorers in international cricket

PlayerMatchesRunsHigh ScoreBalls Faced100504s6s
1. Sachin Tendulkar66434,357248*50817+1001644076264
2. Kumar Sangakkara59428,01631942086631533015159
3. Ricky Ponting56027,48325740130711462781246
4. Mahela Jayawardene65225,95737440100541362679170
5. Virat Kohli50025,58222432389761312533279

1. Sachin Tendulkar

This is not a surprise that master blaster Tendulkar is at the top of this list. He played for India for a massive 24 years and ended up featuring in 664 matches for his country. He scored a staggering 34,357 runs with 100 centuries and 164 fifties and an average of 48.52. His best score of 248* came against Australia in Sydney while Tendulkar was also the first-ever batter in the history of Men’s ODI cricket to score a double century. He has almost 6,000 runs more than any other batter in international cricket.

Also Read: Sachin Tendulkar centuries in international cricket

2. Kumar Sangakkara

Next on the list is Sri Lanka’s ever-legendary player Kumar Sangakkara. The elegant left-hander, who was also the wicketkeeper of the side, amassed 28,016 runs in 594 international matches that he featured. Sangakkara smashed 63 centuries across formats to go with 153 fifties and scored all those runs at an average of 46.77 with the best score of 319.

3. Ricky Ponting

Australia’s two-time World Cup-winning captain Ricky Ponting is in the third position when it comes to scoring the most runs in international cricket. He scored 27,483 runs in his career which saw him play 560 matches across all formats. Pontings average of 45.95 and 71 centuries along with 146 fifties keeps him amongst the best to play international cricket.

4. Mahela Jayawardene

Another legendary Sri Lankan player to make it to this list is Mahela Jayawardene. Both he and Sangakkara thumped runs at will together most of the time to help Sri Lanka win a plethora of matches during their illustrious careers. Coming to Jayawardene, he wore his country’s jersey from 1997 to 2015 playing in a staggering 652 matches and scored a massive 25957 runs at an average of 39.15. He managed to hit 54 centuries and 136 half-centuries in his career.

5. Virat Kohli

Photo by Icon Sport

The latest entrant to the top five list is former India skipper and the only active player in the top 10 players of this list – Kohli. Kohli is currently playing his 500th international match and has made the milestone encounter memorable with a stunning hundred in the first innings of the Test match against West Indies. He needed 73 runs to go past Kallis in this aspect and he scored 121 runs to take his tally of international runs to 25,582. Overall, he also averages more than 53 in all formats, which is the highest among the top 90 run-scorers. He has so far scored 76 tons and 131 fifties and it remains to be seen if he will be able to get close to Tendulkar’s tally of 100 centuries.

Who are the top 5 most run-scorers among Indian players?

PlayerRunsInningsAverage100s/50sNot outs
Sachin Tendulkar3435778248.52100/16474
Virat Kohli2558255953.6376/13182
Rahul Dravid2406459945.5748/14571
Sourav Ganguly1843348541.4238/10640
Rohit Sharma1729846342.9244/9260

Kohli is also the second-highest run-scorer for India in international cricket only behind Sachin Tendulkar. India’s current head coach Rahul Dravid is in the third position in this list and seventh overall with 24,208 runs to his name in 509 international matches at an average of 45.41 with 48 tons and 146 fifties. 

Sourav Ganguly is at number four with 18,575 runs, while India’s current all-format skipper Rohit Sharma has climbed to fifth place with 17,298 runs in 442 international matches of his career so far.

SarahSarah

A strong believer in the fact that Kohli and Paes are the greatest Indian superstars!