Virat Kohli is close to overtaking Ricky Ponting. Photo: BCCI
Virat Kohli will make his return to the ODI format when India take on England in the first ODI of the three-match series on February 6 in Nagpur. India only played 3 ODIs, against Sri Lanka, in 2024. Virat has been enjoying his time away from the game since the Australia tour. He has been named in Delhi's probable Ranji Trophy squad and could turn up for the state team in the upcoming fixture against Jharkhand.
Virat, who will have the onus to score runs in the middle-order in the Champions Trophy, is close to breaking Ricky Ponting's record. With 27324 runs, Virat is the fourth-highest run-scorer in international cricket.
He is just 160 runs away from overtaking Ponting in the list of batsmen with the most runs in international cricket. Ponting finished his career with 27483 runs.
| Batsmen with most runs in international cricket |
Runs |
| Sachin Tendulkar |
34357 |
| Kumar Sangakkara |
28016 |
| Ricky Ponting |
27483 |
| Virat Kohli |
27324 |
| Mahela Jayawardene |
25957 |
Virat has been the backbone of
Team India across formats since 2012. He cemented his spot in the Test team in 2012. He also became the ODI team's vice-captain earlier that year.
He has scored 9230 runs in 123 Tests and 13906 runs in 295 ODIs. The former India captain finished his T20I career with 4188 runs.
Virat's success with the bat saw him replace MS Dhoni as the Test captain in 2014. He became India's white-ball captain in 2017. Under him, India reached the finals of the 2021 World Test Championship and the semi-final of the 2019 ODI World Cup. In 2018/19, India created history by becoming the first Asian team to win a Test series in Australia.
Virat has enjoyed huge success in his career so far and he would aim to return to form against England. The right-handed batsman struggled on the Australia tour and only managed to score 190 runs despite kicking off the series with a century. There are doubts if Virat will be retained in the Test squad for the England tour.
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