When Virat Kohli gets going, the records tumble.
Kohli slammed a double century on the second day of the second Test against South Africa on Friday in Pune to register more 200-plus scores than any other Indian in the history of the longest format.
In the course of his innings, Kohli surpassed batting great Don Bradman’s Test tally of 6,996 runs as he completed his seventh 200 in his 81st Test.
He swept Senuran Muthusamy for two runs to reach the landmark and raised his bat with a smile to an ovation from the crowd in Pune. Kohli has now scored more than 7,000 Test runs at an average of over 53 since making his debut in the West Indies in 2011.
The benchmark puts him in the top 50 Test run-getters, a field led by Indian icon Sachin Tendulkar with 15,921 runs in 200 matches. Tendulkar retired in 2013 with 100 international centuries across formats.
Playing his 50th Test as captain, Kohli has overtaken many big names in Test cricket. Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya and Australian Steve Smith (6973 each), and former England batsman Len Hutton (6971) are now behind Kohli in Test runs.
While Kohli needed 138 innings to get this far, Bradman got the runs in 80 innings at an average of 99.94.
Here are the statistical highlights of Kohli’s innings:
- Kohli now has the most double hundreds among Indian batsmen, while Bradman leads the international list with 12 to his name. He went past Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag’s tally of six double centuries by an Indian.
- Kohli, who hit his overall 26th hundred during the second Test against South Africa, is now on par with Ponting on the list of captains, while former South Africa captain Graeme Smith leads the list with 25 tons to his credit.
Most Test tons by captains
Player | No of centuries | Highest score |
---|---|---|
GC Smith (SA) | 25 | 277 |
V Kohli (INDIA) | 19 | 254* |
RT Ponting (AUS) | 19 | 209 |
AR Border (AUS) | 15 | 205 |
SPD Smith (AUS) | 15 | 239 |
SR Waugh (AUS) | 15 | 199 |
DG Bradman (AUS) | 14 | 270 |
MJ Clarke (AUS) | 14 | 329* |
DPMD Jayawardene (SL) | 14 | 374 |
BC Lara (WI) | 14 | 400* |
- Since registering his first double century (which came after 40 Tests) Kohli has been dismissed for less than 150 on only four times out of the 15 occasions he reached the three-figure mark. It implies an incredible conversion rate every time he gets to a century.
Virat Kohli's Test tons since his first 200
Runs | SR | Inns of the match | Opposition | Ground | Date of Test |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
200 | 70.67 | 1 | v West Indies | North Sound | 21 Jul 2016 |
211 | 57.65 | 1 | v New Zealand | Indore | 8 Oct 2016 |
167 | 62.54 | 1 | v England | Visakhapatnam | 17 Nov 2016 |
235 | 69.11 | 2 | v England | Mumbai | 8 Dec 2016 |
204 | 82.92 | 1 | v Bangladesh | Hyderabad (Deccan) | 9 Feb 2017 |
103* | 75.73 | 3 | v Sri Lanka | Galle | 26 Jul 2017 |
104* | 87.39 | 3 | v Sri Lanka | Kolkata | 16 Nov 2017 |
213 | 79.77 | 2 | v Sri Lanka | Nagpur | 24 Nov 2017 |
243 | 84.66 | 1 | v Sri Lanka | Delhi | 2 Dec 2017 |
153 | 70.50 | 2 | v South Africa | Centurion | 13 Jan 2018 |
149 | 66.22 | 2 | v England | Birmingham | 1 Aug 2018 |
103 | 52.28 | 3 | v England | Nottingham | 18 Aug 2018 |
139 | 60.43 | 1 | v West Indies | Rajkot | 4 Oct 2018 |
123 | 47.85 | 2 | v Australia | Perth | 14 Dec 2018 |
254* | 75.59 | 1 | v South Africa | Pune | 10 Oct 2019 |
Virat Kohli's first test double hundred was against the West Indies in 2016. If you include that knock, 7 of his last 15 test centuries were double hundreds & another two more than 150! Incredible conversion rate!
— Joy Bhattacharjya (@joybhattacharj) October 11, 2019
- Kohli registered his ninth 150 plus score as captain, once again going past Bradman, who had eight such knocks.
- Coming in October, this is the Indian star’s first hundred of this year, having scored two fifties in the eight innings that he has played in 2019. In his Test career, this is the latest he has scored a ton in a calendar year (no century in 2011, his first season).
- Kohli got to his highest ever first-class score and also set the record for the best individual score by an Indian captain in Tests, going past his own previous marks of 243 (against Sri Lanka) and 235 (against England).
Highest individual scores by India captains
— Deepu Narayanan (@deeputalks) October 11, 2019
254*Kohli v SA Pune 2019/20
243 Kohli v SL Delhi 2017/18
235 Kohli v Eng Mumbai WS 2016/17
224 Dhoni v Aus Chennai 2012/13
217 Tendulkar v NZ Ahmedabad 1999/00
213 Kohli v SL Nagpur 2017/18
211 Kohli v NZ Indore 2016/17#INDvSA
- Kohli has moved up on the list of leading Indian run-scorers, going past Dilip Vengsarkar.
India's leading run-scorers in Tests
Player | Matches (Inns) | Runs | Ave | 100s | 50s |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SR Tendulkar | 200 (329) | 15921 | 53.78 | 51 | 68 |
R Dravid | 163 (284) | 13265 | 52.63 | 36 | 63 |
SM Gavaskar | 125 (214) | 10122 | 51.12 | 34 | 45 |
VVS Laxman | 134 (225) | 8781 | 45.97 | 17 | 56 |
V Sehwag | 103 (178) | 8503 | 49.43 | 23 | 31 |
SC Ganguly | 113 (188) | 7212 | 42.17 | 16 | 35 |
V Kohli | 81 (138) | 7054 | 55.10 | 26 | 23 |
250 - Virat Kohli is only the 5th man to record 250 in a Test innings for India (Sehwag x4, VVS Laxman, Dravid & Nair). Club. #INDvSA pic.twitter.com/xhw1mNRyFC
— OptaJim (@OptaJim) October 11, 2019
Most Test runs among active cricketers
— Deepu Narayanan (@deeputalks) October 11, 2019
7054 Virat Kohli
7043 Joe Root
6973 Steve Smith
6839 Ross Taylor
6458 David Warner
6163 Kane Williamson#INDvSA
- No batsman in Test cricket has scored 150-plus more times than Kohli since the Indian made is debut in the longest format in 2011.
150-plus Test scores since Kohli's debut
Player | 150-plus scores | Runs | Highest score |
---|---|---|---|
V Kohli (INDIA) | 10 | 2049 | 254* |
SPD Smith (AUS) | 8 | 1561 | 239 |
MJ Clarke (AUS) | 7 | 1527 | 329* |
AN Cook (ENG) | 7 | 1572 | 294 |
CA Pujara (INDIA) | 7 | 1270 | 206* |
Most as Test captain
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) October 11, 2019
200+ scores : Virat Kohli (6)
150+ scores : Virat Kohli (9)
100+ scores : Graeme Smith (25), followed by Ponting/Kohli (19 each)#IndvSA #IndvsSA
Here are some more statistics from Kohli’s marathon effort:
Fastest to 7000 Test runs:
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) October 11, 2019
131 - Hammond
134 - Sehwag
136 - Tendulkar
138 - Sobers, Sangakkara, KOHLI#IndvSA
Double hundreds by Indian captains in Tests:
— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) October 11, 2019
7 : Virat Kohli
4 : all other 32 captains combined#INDvSA
254* - Virat Kohli has just registered his highest Test innings score (254*); a knock defined by the high level of control displayed by the batsman. Graphics. #INDvSA pic.twitter.com/FOURjjvmfj
— OptaJim (@OptaJim) October 11, 2019
Most I'ntl centuries as captain:
— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) October 11, 2019
41 Ponting (376 innings)
40 Kohli (185 innings)*
33 G Smith (368 innings)
20 S Smith (118 innings)
19 M Clarke (171 innings)
19 Lara (204 innings)
Virat Kohli's Innings Progression
— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) October 11, 2019
0-50 runs - 91 Balls - 3.49 rpo
51-100 runs - 82 Balls - 3.51 rpo
101-50 runs - 68 Balls - 4.41 rpo
151-200 runs - 54 Balls - 5.44 rpo
201-250 runs - 39 Balls - 8.00 rpo#INDvSA
Fastest to score 21,000 international runs: (No. of matches)
— Umang Pabari (@UPStatsman) October 11, 2019
392 - VIRAT KOHLI*
396 - Brian Lara
418 - Sachin Tendulkar #INDvsSA
The 250 club!
— Victor Tarapore (@VictorTarapore) October 11, 2019
Indians to have reached 250+ in a Test innings
- Virender Sehwag (FOUR TIMES!!)
- Rahul Dravid
- VVS Laxman
- Karun Nair
- Virat Kohli 👈#MakeStatsGreatAgain #INDvSA #SAvIND #KingKohli #Kohli
Virat Kohli:
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) October 11, 2019
First 41 Tests - 0 double-centuries
Next 40 Tests - 7 double-centuries#IndvSA
With agency and ESPNCricinfo Statsguru inputs