Virat Kohli on Thursday surpassed his former teammate, MS Dhoni, from india who has played the most number of matches (Test+ODI+T20I) overall when he was announced as a part of the playing XI for the first Test match against New Zealand in Bengaluru. Kohli has so far played 536 matches for India – one more than the iconic Dhoni who ended his career at 535 matches.
Crowned as the second most capped player for India, Kohli is still trailing. The legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar tops the charts with 664 matches for India across all standards in the course of his glorious international career.
Another batting great and a former head coach of Team India Rahul Dravid is third on this list with 504 caps. Rohit Sharma follows him in fourth position with 486 caps. Mohammed Azharuddin rounds up the top-five most capped players with 433 games played.
Rank Name Career Span Matches (Test+ODI+T20I)
1 Sachin Tendulkar 1989-2013 664
2 Virat Kohli 2008-2024 536
3 MS Dhoni 2004-2019 535
4 Rahul Dravid 1996-2012 504
5 Rohit Sharma 2007-2024 486
6 Mohammed Azharuddin 1984-2000 433
7 Sourav Ganguly 1992-2008 421
8 Anil Kumble 1990-2008 401
9 Yuvraj Singh 2000-2017 399
10 Harbhajan Singh 1998-2016 365
However, when it came to batting during the first Test match played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, he was sent back to the pavilion without troubling the scorecard in just 9 balls, as New Zealand took full advantage of the overcast conditions to quickly dismantle the Indian top order within the first 10 overs.
This Test match in progress is the 116th of Kohli’s international career which is equal seventh for India along with Dilip Vengsarkar. It is Tendulkar Most career Tests for an Indian from 1989 to 2013 is also Nine 200 Test career which is the highest ever.
The 35-year-old, as he is in pursuit of yet another target, will want to rectify mistakes in the second innings. The ex-captain is 53 runs away from reaching and crossing the 9,000 runs mark in Test cricket, making him the fourth Indian after Sunil Gavaskar, the little master, and Rahul Dravid to achieve that target.
On Thursday the first Test match of the series India vs New Zealand started despite one day being washed out of rains. Rohit won the toss and chose to bat first but the home side was brashly shot out to 10-3 very quickly.
