Virat Kohli became the 18th player to score 9,000 runs in Test matches with a fluent innings on day three in Bengaluru. Here's how he matches up to the rest of the club.
Kohli came in at No.3 for the second time in the first Test against New Zealand, having been dismissed for a duck in the position yesterday (October 17). Before this Test match, Kohli had last come in at first drop in 2016, and had an average of 19.40 when batting at three. However, he flipped that narrative in the second innings, reaching his first Test half century since December 2023 as he and Sarfaraz Khan put together a partnership which brought India back into the game.
Coming into the innings, Kohli needed 53 runs to pass the 9,000 run threshold in Test cricket. After reaching 50 off 70 balls, which included five fours and a glorious six down the ground off Ajaz Patel, he stuck in and took a further nine balls to get the three runs he needed to complete 9,000.
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He is the 18th player to accumulate 9,000 Test match runs, and one of three currently active players in the club - Joe Root and Steve Smith being the other two. He is also the fourth India player to reach the mark, behind Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar.
In terms of innings taken to reach 9,000, Kohli is the sixth-slowest player to get to the milestone. He has taken 197 innings to get there, with the slowest being 216 innings which is a joint record held by Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Steve Waugh. The quickest player in terms of innings to reach 9,000 is Kumar Sangakkara, who took 172 innings to join the club - two fewer than second-placed Smith and Dravid. Kohli is also the slowest India player in the 9,000 group, behind Dravid's 174 innings, Tendulkar's 179 and Gavaskar's 192.
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On the all-time run-scoring charts, Kohli's next target is Graeme Smith, who is over 200 runs ahead of Kohli at the time of writing. He has another 1,100 runs to move up another place on the India run-scorers list, chasing down Gavaskar for third place. With another two Tests to come against New Zealand and a five Test series in Australia in December, Kohli should move up to just behind Gavaskar on the all-time rankings by end of the year.
Full list: Players with 9,000 Test runs
| Player | Country | Total runs | Innings to 9,000 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | 15,921 | 179 |
| Ricky Ponting | Australia | 13,378 | 177 |
| Jacques Kallis | South Africa | 13,289 | 188 |
| Rahul Dravid | India | 13,288 | 176 |
| Joe Root* | England | 12,716 | 196 |
| Alastair Cook | England | 12,472 | 204 |
| Kumar Sangakkara | Sri Lanka | 12,400 | 172 |
| Brian Lara | West Indies | 11,953 | 177 |
| Shivnarine Chanderpaul | West Indies | 11,867 | 216 |
| Mahela Jayawardene | Sri Lanka | 11,814 | 178 |
| Allan Border | Australia | 11,174 | 207 |
| Steve Waugh | Australia | 10,927 | 216 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | India | 10,122 | 192 |
| Younis Khan | Pakistan | 10,099 | 184 |
| Steve Smith* | Australia | 9,685 | 174 |
| Hashim Amla | South Africa | 9,282 | 204 |
| Graeme Smith | South Africa | 9,265 | 195 |
| Virat Kohli* | India | 9,010 | 197 |
* Players who are still active in Test cricket
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