In the 2023 World Cup, Virat Kohli scored his 50th ODI century against New Zealand on November 15 and went past Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 centuries to rank as the leading batsman with the most centuries in ODIs. It hasn’t been a year since Kohli created a sensation and now the Indian star batter is set to break Sachin’s another exceptional record in test cricket.

The upcoming 2-match multi-format series against Bangladesh with the first test match commencing on September 19 will be crucial for King Kohli to establish himself as the all-time greatest player in cricket history. Earlier, Kohli surpassed Sachin’s several lifetime records in his career and is on a mission to break a few more unimaginable records.

Becoming the fastest player to reach 27,000 runs in an international cricket career is a rare and outstanding achievement and Virat Kohli just requires a few more runs to achieve the prestigious milestone in his career. Also, he would become the first batsman to reach this record less than 600 innings.

Notably, the 35-year-old cricketer ranks fourth on the list for scoring the most runs in international cricket after Sachin Tendulkar, Kumar Sangakkara, and Ricky Ponting.

Can Virat Kohli Break Sachin Tendulkar’s record to become the fastest player to score 27,000 runs?

YES! At present, Virat Kohli inched close to Sachin’s record with 26,942 runs in 591 innings and requires just 58 runs to surpass another mind-blowing record held by the Master Blaster for years. However, Sachin Tendulkar is currently leading in the list who took 623 innings (including 226 Tests, 396 ODI innings, and 1 T20I innings) to achieve this milestone, while the modern-day legend, Kohli has played less than 600 innings so far.

Here is a breakdown of Virat Kohli’s runs in three different formats of international cricket:

• Test Cricket: 8,848 runs in 191 innings (113 matches).
• One-Day Internationals (ODIs): 13,906 runs in 283 innings (295 matches).
• Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is): 4,188 runs in 117 innings (125 matches).

By scoring another 58 runs, Kohli will become the 4th Indian batsman to reach 9,000 runs in test cricket after Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, and Rahul Dravid.

List of Batters with Most Runs in International Cricket: Virat Kohli’s Name on the List

Here is the list of the top 10 batters (including Virat Kohli’s name) who scored the most runs in international cricket tabulated below in detail:

List of Sachin Tendulkar’s Records that Virat Kohli Surpassed

There are countless instances when Virat Kohli surpassed Sachin Tendulkar’s records, out of which a few are listed below:

1. Fastest to reach 13000 ODI Runs:

On 11th September 2023, Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 122 runs from 94 balls and became the fastest batsman to reach 13,000 runs. This is Sachin’s one of the greatest records that Kohli broke during the Super four stages of Asia Cup 2023 against Pakistan.

2. Most Runs in a Single Edition ODI World Cup:

Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar was leading in the list by scoring 673 runs in 11 innings of the ODI World Cup 2003, which was the most by any batsman in a single edition World Cup. However, Kohli broke Sachin’s 20-year-old record by scoring 765 runs in 11 innings of the 2023 ODI World Cup.

3. Fastest Batsman to reach 20,000 International Runs:

On June 27, Virat Kohli scored 72 runs from 82 balls against West Indies in the 34th match of the ICC World Cup 2019 and became the fastest batsman to reach 20,000 runs in his 416th international innings. He surpassed the exceptional record of the legendary cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, who achieved this feat in 453 international innings.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, there are higher chances for Virat Kohli to break Sachin’s record in the forthcoming test series against Bangladesh on homeground. His energetic batting style and consistent performance have set new milestones for the younger generations, thereby raising the standards of cricket in the present era. 

It wouldn’t be a new challenge for the right-handed batter because he has easily achieved such records several times in his career. For instance, Team India’s run-machine Kohli holds the record as the fastest batsman to reach 16k, 17k, 18k, 19k, 20k, 21k, 22k, 23k, 24k, 25k, and 26k in international cricket. Finally, the time has come for the King of Cricket to add another world-class record in his career by becoming the fastest batsman to cross 27,000 international runs.