Kohli becomes second fastest Indian batsman to cross 6000 Test runs

SOUTHAMPTON: Dashing batsman Virat Kohli has become the tenth Indian batsman to cross the 6000-run mark in Test cricket during his innings of 46 on second day of the fourth Test against England here at the Ageas Bowl on Friday.

He needed just six runs to reach the milestone when he came to the crease and then he achieved it hitting a four off James Anderson.

After lunch, he was dismissed - caught by Alistair Cook off left-arm pacer Sam Curran - for 46, four short of his 18th fifty.

By scoring 6,000 Test runs in 119 innings, Kohli became the second quickest India batsman to the landmark after former opener Sunil Gavaskar (117). Sachin Tendulkar got there in 120 innings.

Playing in his 70th Test match and 39th as captain, Kohli has now reached 6040 runs at an average of 54.40 with 23 hundreds, including six double-hundreds.

He is the 66th batsman to score 6000 or more runs in Test cricket, with his country-fellow Tendulkar on the top making 15921 runs in 200 Tests. Other Indian batsmen were Rahul Dravid (13288), Sunil Gavaskar (10122), VVS Laxman (8781), Virender Sehwag (8586), Sourav Ganguly (7212), Dilip Vengsarkar (6868), Mohammad Azharuddin (6215) and Gundappa Viswanath (6080).

The country-wise breakup of the overall list is as follows: Australia -15, England - 5, India -10, West Indies - 9, South Africa - 6, Pakistan - 4, Sri Lanka - 4 and New Zealand - 3.