Virat Kohli took 197 innings to complete his 9,000 Test runs, making him the fourth-fastest Indian and the 13th fastest overall to 9,000 Test runs in terms of innings
Indian batting mainstay Virat Kohli became the fourth Indian to cross the 9,000-run mark in Test cricket on Friday (October 18, 2024). Kohli achieved the milestone when he went past the 53-run mark on the third day of the first India vs New Zealand Test in Bengaluru. (Match Blog | Scorecard | Streaming)
With that, Kohli joined the exclusive and illustrious company of Sachin Tendulkar (15,921 runs), Rahul Dravid (13,265 runs) and Sunil Gavaskar (10,122 runs) in scoring more than 9000 runs for the Indian Test team.
Kohli took 197 innings to complete his 9,000 Test runs, making him the fourth-fastest Indian and the 13th fastest overall to 9,000 Test runs in terms of innings. Dravid is the fastest from the country, getting past 9000 runs in 176 innings, while Kumar Sangakkara tops the overall list with 172 innings needed to get there.
Former India skipper Kohli now has 9,000 runs and counting in 116 Test matches with an average of 48.91, including 29 hundreds and 31 half-centuries at the time of writing.
The landmark follows a recent lull in Test scores for Kohli, who last hit a hundred in the format back in July 2023. Batting at number 3, Kohli fell for a nine-ball duck in the first innings against New Zealand as India were all out for a lowly 46.
In the recent Test series against Bangladesh, Kohli had become the quickest batter to complete 27,000 international runs in just 594 innings.