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. FOLLOW: India vs New Zealand 1st ODI Live Score Updates 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. 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 SangakkaraStory continues below this ad 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
STATS: Virat Kohli becomes fastest batter to reach 28,000 runs, breaks Sachin Tendulkar’s record
