Stats: Virat Kohli reaches 7000 runs in Test cricket

It is Virat Kohli’s world and we are all just living in it! The Indian captain has reached at such a stage in his career that, that every time he marches onto the field either as skipper or with the willow in his hand, records tumble like leaves on an Autumn morning.  Statisticians have a field day updating or creating new sections in the record-books while writers churn out editorials celebrating the genius of the man followed by a gentle comparison between him and a certain Sachin Tendulkar.

In a game where he has already made history by becoming only the second Indian captain to lead his country in 50 Test matches, Virat Kohli decided to break some more with the bat. Putting an end to an otherwise unusual 10 innings streak of not scoring a Test hundred, the Indian captain broke the drought with a scintillating 26th ton.

In the process, Kohli also became only the 2nd captain to score a double-hundred in his 50th Test as captain and the first to score 40 hundreds as a skipper across the three formats of the game. Kohli has taken 138 innings to surpass 26 Test tons and is leapfrogged by Sir Don Bradman (69), Steven Smith (120) and Sachin Tendulkar (136).

He didn’t stop there though! The Indian captain, who has in the past two-three years, has made it a habit to score daddy-hundreds, went on to rack up his 7th double hundred- the most by an Indian cricketer and the joint 4th alongside Wally Hammond and Mahela Jayawardene in the overall list. (Sir Don Bradman-12, Kumar Sangakkara– 11, Brain Lara-11). Kohli’s seven double months have come in just a space of last 40 Tests, during which time since he has averaged 67 in Test cricket. In this period, the next best are Azhar Ali, Alastair Cook, Steve Smith, all of whom have managed two double-tons.

Kohli, joint fourth-fastest to 7000 Test runs

And, it was a double whammy for King Kohli. While notching up that double ton, The Indian captain also surpassed the milestone of 7,000 Test runs in his 138th inning, becoming the joint fourth-fastest with Gary Sobers, Kumar Sangakkara to scale the milestone in a list headed by Wally Hammond (131), Virender Sehwag (134), Sachin Tendulkar (136). After getting past the double-hundred, Kohli and Jadeja broke all the shackles. 

Fastest to 7000 runs by a player in Test cricket

(Stats updated till 11th October 2019)