India captain Virat Kohli has been in supreme form in the ongoing series against England and on Sunday he reached another milestone when he became the first Indian captain to score 4000 Test runs. Kohli reached the mark with a flick to the fine-leg boundary off Ben Stokes. Kohli’s record as captain has been phenomenal as he has scored 16 hundreds and 9 fifties with a best of 243.
Kohli’s status as India’s premier batsman across all formats is undisputed and he added another feather to his cap on Friday, when he went past the 6000-run mark in Test cricket. It was the second day of the fourth Test against England at Southampton.
Kohli reached the milestone in his 119th innings, which made him the ninth fastest in Test history. He was also the second fastest Indian to the mark after Sunil Gavaskar. The former India captain had taken 117 innings to complete 6000 runs in Tests.
The record for the fastest to the mark belongs to cricket’s original run machine, Donald Bradman. The Australian legend had completed the mark in an astounding 68 innings. Banned Australian batsman Steven Smith and former West Indies great Gary Sobers occupy the second spot, having reached the mark in 111 Test innings.
Kohli has beaten greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Vivian Richards to the milestone. Both Tendulkar and Richards took 120 innings to complete 6000 Test runs. The Indian captain is also nearing 10,000 runs in one-day internationals and has also crossed the 2000-runs mark in T20 internationals.