Virat Kohli continued his rampaging pursuit of breaking milestones as he reached 28,000 international runs during the first ODI against New Zealand in Vadodara on Sunday. He got the milestone by walloping a ball from Adithya Ashok past the New Zealand spinner.
The 37-year-old Kohli completed 28,000 runs across all formats, joining an exclusive club of batters which includes Sachin Tendulkar and Kumar Sangakkara.
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Kohli broke Tendulkar’s record to become the fastest batter to reach 28,000 runs in only his 624th* innings since his international debut in 2008. Tendulkar had reached the landmark during his 644th innings while Sangakkara crossed the feat in his 666th innings.
In February 2023, Kohli became the fastest batter to reach 25,000 runs, achieving the mark in 549 innings, 28 innings quicker than Tendulkar. In October 2023, Kohli went past 26,000 runs as the quickest to the landmark, again bettering Tendulkar by 13 innings. A year later, in September 2024, he leapt to 27,000 runs in his 59th innings.
File image of Virat Kohli. (Photo: Creimas via BCCI)
Kohli relished a successful end to the 2025 calendar year in the 50-over format after scoring back-to-back centuries against South Africa and finishing the series decider with an unbeaten half-century as India won 2-1. He later turned up for two matches in the domestic Vijay Hazare Trophy, scoring a century and a fifty against Andhra and Gujarat respectively. Kohli’s superb List A streak of six successive of fifty-plus scores began in Sydney, immediately after he was dismissed for two consecutive ducks for the first time in his ODI career in Australia.
Fastest to 28,000 international runs
624 innings* = Virat Kohli*
644 innings – Sachin Tendulkar
666 innings – Kumar Sangakkara
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Most runs in international cricket
Stats of September 30 when Kohli reached 27,000 runs
| Player | Span | Mat | Inns | Runs | HS | Ave | SR | 100 | 50 |
| Sachin Tendulkar (IND) | 1989-2013 | 664 | 782 | 34357 | 248* | 48.52 | 67.58* | 100 | 164 |
| Kumar Sangakkara (Asia/ICC/SL) | 2000-2015 | 594 | 666 | 28016 | 319 | 46.77 | 66.56 | 63 | 153 |
| Virat Kohli (IND) | 2008-2026 | 556 | 624 | 28000 | 254* | 52.58 | 79.45 | 84 | 145 |
| Ricky Ponting (AUS/ICC) | 1995-2012 | 560 | 668 | 27483 | 257 | 45.95 | 68.48 | 71 | 146 |
| Mahela Jayawardena (Asia/SL) | 1997-2015 | 652 | 725 | 25957 | 374 | 39.15 | 64.73 | 54 | 136 |
| Jacques Kallis (Afr/ICC/SA) | 1995-2014 | 519 | 617 | 25534 | 224 | 49.1 | 56.3 | 62 | 149 |
| Rahul Dravid (Asia/ICC/IND) | 1996-2012 | 509 | 605 | 24208 | 270 | 45.41 | 51.98 | 48 | 146 |
| Brian Lara (ICC/WI) | 1990-2007 | 430 | 521 | 22358 | 400* | 46.28 | 68.08 | 53 | 111 |
| Joe Root (ENG) | 2012-2026 | 381 | 503 | 22166 | 262 | 49.36 | 66.54 | 60 | 114 |
| Sanath Jayasuriya (Asia/SL) | 1989-2011 | 586 | 651 | 21032 | 340 | 34.14 | 81.17 | 42 | 103 |
