With his 536th appearance in the first Test against New Zealand at M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday, senior batter Virat Kohli surpassed former skipper MS Dhoni to become India’s second-most capped international cricketer across all formats. Dhoni, who retired in 2019, played 535 appearances for India from 2004 to 2019.
Kohli made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in 2008 and has since played 116 Tests, 295 ODIs, and 125 T20Is, totalling 27,041 international runs. He has also captained India in 213 matches, including 68 Tests and 95 One-Day Internationals. Kohli currently trails just Sachin Tendulkar, who has the most international appearances by an Indian cricketer (664 caps). Rohit Sharma (486 caps) and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (346 caps) are the next two current players after Kohli.
Kohli is tied for sixth in Test cricket with 116 caps and 8,947 runs, falling only 53 runs short of being the fourth Indian to surpass 9,000 Test runs. Notably, he recently became the fastest player to reach 27,000 international runs in just 594 innings. However, while Kohli was celebrating his milestone, his team suffered a crushing defeat against New Zealand on Day 2, getting bowled out for 46 runs.
