Virat Kohli goes past Brian Lara to become the fastest to 18,000 international runs

Indian skipper Virat Kohli just keeps breaking records every time he sets foot on the cricket field and even as the batting failed on the second day of the fifth Test match at The Oval, the right-hander reached the milestone of becoming the fastest batsman in international cricket to score 18,000 runs, surpassing the legendary Brian Lara. He also has now joined an elite list of cricketers which has greats like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid as being the ones from India to have surpassed the 18,000 run-mark.

The 29-year old played yet another crucial 49-run knock in India’s first innings on the second day which enabled him to cross that landmark in 382 innings which is the fastest in international cricket, going past Lara’s 411 innings and Tendulkar’s 412.

Kohli, much like he did throughout the series came into bat at a time when the game was slowly going away from India’s way and he slowly composed himself to put up 31 runs with Cheteshwar Pujara who was dismissed by James Anderson. Rahane was dismissed soon after which the Indian captain stitched a crucial 51-run partnership with debutant Hanuma Vihari. With just one run short of his fourth fifty in the series, Kohli fell to Ben Stokes as he edged one to counterpart Joe Root.

Kohli has fought his demons of 2014 in style now has scored 593 runs so far which is the most by any player in series.