Star Indian cricketer Virat Kohli will be targeting several significant milestones as he gears up for the first Test against Bangladesh in Chennai, aiming to surpass the recent achievements of his counterparts Joe Root, Steve Smith, and Kane Williamson in the longer format. The two-match series between India and Bangladesh will commence on September 19 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, with the second Test scheduled to start on September 27 in Kanpur. In his inaugural Test assignment, head coach Gautam Gambhir will be focused on securing a series victory.
Kohli, who missed the home series against England earlier this year due to the birth of his second child, has shown promising form in the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25, accumulating 369 runs in four matches and six innings at an average of 61.50, including a century and two fifties. His highest score during this period was 121. Kohli is now aiming to reach the 9,000-run milestone in Test cricket, needing just 152 more runs to achieve this feat. If successful, he will become the only Indian player to reach this milestone. In 113 Tests, Kohli has scored 8,848 runs in 191 innings at an average of 49.15, with 29 centuries and 30 fifties to his name. His best score in Tests is 254.
Sachin Tendulkar holds the record for the highest number of Test runs for India, with 15,921 runs in 200 matches. Kohli, who is also the fourth-highest run-getter in international cricket history, has amassed 26,942 runs in 533 matches and 591 innings at an average of 53.35, including 80 centuries and 140 fifties. He is just 58 runs away from reaching 27,000 international runs. However, this series will be crucial for Kohli to bounce back from a challenging year, during which he has scored only 296 runs in 14 matches at an average of 19.73, with just one half-century in 15 innings. His highest score this year has been 76.
For Rohit Sharma's team, this series against Bangladesh will be followed by New Zealand's tour of India for three Tests starting on October 16, and then the highly anticipated Border-Gavaskar series in Australia from November 22.
