India’s star batsman Virat Kohli has overtaken MS Dhoni to become India’s second-most capped player in all competitions. Kohli played his 536th international match in the first Test against New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday. Dhoni, who led India to win all three ICC trophies, played 535 games for India between 2004 and 2019 before retiring in 2019.
Virat Kohli made his ODI debut for India against Sri Lanka back in 2008 and has been a consistent performer, playing a total of 116 Tests, 295 ODIs and 125 T20Is so far. He has a total of 27,041 international caps.
Kohli is now second only to Sachin Tendulkar, who still holds the record for most international appearances by an Indian cricketer with 664 appearances.
Earlier, it was revealed by India captain Rohit Sharma that Virat Kohli will assume the No. 3 position in the first Test match against New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru Hitting responsibility. After a gap of eight years, Kohli came out as the No. 3 batsman and hit a nine-ball duck against William O’Rourke.
“Yes, he is a local boy. So does he have to play 3? (laughs). After a long period of time, KL Rahul found the spot at No. 6. Experienced players have to take more responsibility. This Next is Virat. He is the one who is ready to do it,” Rohit said in the post-match press conference.
“We asked him if he can play at No. 3. Sarfaraz, we also wanted to give him the positions he usually plays – No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6. We didn’t want to change Rishabh and KL. So, Sarfaraz went to No. 4, Virat ranks third.