On Thursday, December 28, Team India’s Virat Kohli achieved another significant feat by becoming the first batsman to score 2,000 international runs in seven different calendar years.
The 35-year-old scored 76 off 82 balls in the second innings of the Centurion Test against South Africa and broke the record of Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara, who had scored 2,000 or more runs in six different calendar years.
India lost the first Test match against South Africa at the SuperSport Park in Centurion by an innings and 32 runs.
The Proteas scored 408 runs in the only innings they had to bat, while in the two innings, they were bowled out for 245 and 131.
In an otherwise poor performance, Kohli was one of the few bright spots for India along with KL Rahul, who scored a century in the first innings.
While all other Indian batsmen were struggling, the latter scored 38 runs in the first innings and then added a half-century in the second innings.
Following his centurion-hitting exploits, Virat scored 2048 international runs in 36 innings in 2023 at an average of 66.06, including eight centuries and ten fifties.
Read Also: Michael Vaughan calls India the world’s ‘least achieving’ team
Virat Kohli became the first player to surpass Kumar Sangakkara to create an important record in international cricket history
For the first time, the 35-year-old scored more than 2000 runs in a calendar year in international cricket in 2012, scoring 2186 runs in 46 innings at an average of 53.31, which included eight centuries and ten half-centuries.
After this, the right-handed batsman scored 2,286 runs in 2014, 2,595 in 2016, 2,818 in 2017, 2,735 in 2018 and 2,455 in 2019.
Virat Kohli Outstanding 2023
In the second half of 2022, Kohli regained his form in international cricket after a prolonged slump and scored his first century in over a millennium.
In 2023, he particularly excelled in the one-day format. With six centuries and eight fifties, Virat scored 1377 runs in 24 ODI innings at an average of 72.47 and a strike rate of 99.13.
The former India captain had an incredible performance in the home ODI World Cup, scoring three centuries and a record-breaking 765 runs in 11 innings at an average of 95.62 and a strike rate of 90.32.
He also surpassed Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI centuries in the entire competition.
In 2023, Kohli also performed commendably in Tests, scoring 671 runs in 12 innings at an average of 55.91, which included two centuries and two fifties.