India vs New Zealand: Virat Kohli 11 runs away from surpassing Sourav Ganguly in elite list

Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli will be on the verge of achieving another major milestone when he takes the field during the first Test encounter against New Zealand in Wellington on Friday. The talismanic batsman, who has already claimed a number of records in the longest format of the sport, is just 11 runs away from becoming the fifth highest run scorer in Tests for India. Former skipper Sourav Ganguly currently holds the fifth spot with 7212 runs. The list is topped by Sachin Tendulkar (15921 runs) followed by Rahul Dravid (13265), Sunil Gavaskar (10122), VVS Laxman (8781) and Virender Sehwag (8503).

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Kohli is currently one of the busiest players in contemporary cricket who leads India across formats and is also captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“I think it’s been eight or nine years that I’ve been playing almost 300 days a year with the travelling and practice sessions,” Kohli told reporters ahead of the first Test match.

“And the intensity is right up there all the time. So it does take a toll on you,” said Kohli, who has grown into the premium batsman of his era since his India debut in 2008.

Kohli takes intermittent breaks to survive the crammed calendar and believes that is the only way one could play all three formats of the game.

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“You are going to see a lot of that in the future from many players. Not just myself, especially from the guys who are playing all three formats. It’s not that easy.”

“Periodic breaks for me seems to work pretty okay. At a time when the body doesn’t respond as well, maybe when I am 34-35, you might have a different conversation at that stage.

“But for the next two-three years, I have no issues at all. I can keep going on with the same intensity ...”

(With agency inputs)