Virat Kohli impressed everyone with his batting as the star India batter slammed a sensational century during the Champions Trophy 2025 encounter against Pakistan. It was a show of pure control by Virat who dominated the Pakistan bowlers and in the process, he went on to break multiple records previously belonging to legendary India batter Sachin Tendulkar. India take on New Zealand in their next Group A match on Sunday and Virat will once again have the chance to achieve a major milestone. Kohli needs 105 runs to become the leading run-scorer among Indians in ODIs against New Zealand. Tendulkar currently tops the list with 1750 runs with Ricky Ponting (1971) leading overall.
Virat is also 85 runs away from becoming the fifth batter ever to score 3000 or more international runs against New Zealand. The other batters in the list are Sachin Tendulkar (3345), Ricky Ponting (3145), Jacques Kallis (3071) and Joe Root (3068).
Meanwhile, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting believes Virat Kohli has the best opportunity to cement his legacy as the highest run-scorer in ODI history.
Kohli's unbeaten century against Pakistan in Dubai on Sunday propelled him to No. 5 in the ICC ODI rankings and made him only the third player to surpass 14,000 runs in 50-over cricket. Having already overtaken Ponting on the all-time run charts, Kohli is now just 149 runs away from second-placed Kumar Sangakkara. However, he remains 4,341 runs behind Sachin Tendulkar, who tops the list.
"With someone like Virat, you never write him off, because I'm sure he'd be motivated by that [achieving the record], I think," Ponting said on the ICC Review Podcast, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
"Now that he's gone past me and only two ahead of him, I'm sure he wants to give himself the best chance to be remembered as the all-time leading run scorer in the game," he added.
(With ANI inputs)