Fastest to 10,000 runs in ODI cricket: Virat Kohli’s 205 innings

Virat Kohli reached 10,000 ODI runs in 205 innings, 54 fewer than Sachin Tendulkar needed. Rohit Sharma is second on 241, and six of the ten fastest are Indians.

Virat Kohli reached 10,000 runs in ODI cricket in his 205th innings, and nobody has come close since. He got there against West Indies at Visakhapatnam on 24 October 2018, taking 54 innings fewer than Sachin Tendulkar, whose 259 had stood as the mark since 2001.

Rohit Sharma is second on 241 innings, a place he took at the 2023 Asia Cup, which pushed Tendulkar down to third. Six of the ten fastest are Indians.

Fastest to 10,000 runs in ODI cricket

All 15 players who have scored 10,000 runs in ODI cricket, ranked on the innings each needed to get there. Complete to 10 September 2026. Source: ESPNcricinfo.

Rank	Player	Team	Innings	Matches	Milestone match	Date
1	Virat Kohli	India	205	213	v West Indies	24 October 2018
2	Rohit Sharma	India	241	248	v Sri Lanka	12 September 2023
3	Sachin Tendulkar	India	259	266	v Australia	31 March 2001
4	Sourav Ganguly	India	263	272	v Sri Lanka	3 August 2005
5	Ricky Ponting	Australia	266	272	v South Africa	24 March 2007
6	Jacques Kallis	South Africa	272	286	v Australia	23 January 2009
7	MS Dhoni	India	273	320	v England	14 July 2018
8	Brian Lara	West Indies	278	287	v Pakistan	16 December 2006
9	Chris Gayle	West Indies	282	288	v England	27 February 2019
10	Rahul Dravid	India	287	309	v Sri Lanka	14 February 2007
11	Tillakaratne Dilshan	Sri Lanka	293	319	v Pakistan	26 July 2015
12	Kumar Sangakkara	Sri Lanka	296	315	v Australia	17 February 2012
13	Inzamam-ul-Haq	Pakistan	299	322	v India	19 September 2004
14	Sanath Jayasuriya	Sri Lanka	328	337	v India	9 August 2005
15	Mahela Jayawardene	Sri Lanka	333	355	v Pakistan	18 November 2011

Fifteen batters, and no more

Ten thousand ODI runs is the rarest of the big batting milestones: 15 men have done it in 55 years of the format, and the table above is all of them, not a top ten. Tendulkar’s 18,426 is still nearly 3,500 clear of second place.

Innings, not matches

The record is counted in innings, and the two columns pull apart for a middle-order batter who is not always needed. MS Dhoni played 320 matches for his 273 innings — a gap of 47, the widest on the list — while Kohli needed only eight more matches than innings.

It is an easy figure to misread. Chris Gayle’s 288 is his match count; he took 282 innings, which is why he sits ahead of Rahul Dravid’s 287 rather than behind him.

Virat Kohli’s 205 innings

Kohli’s milestone came in the second ODI of West Indies’ tour of India. He made 157 not out from 129 balls with 13 fours and four sixes — his 37th ODI hundred — and India posted 321 for 6.

The match was tied, not lost or won: West Indies finished on 321 for 7 with Shai Hope 123 not out, levelling the scores with a boundary off the last ball. Kohli passed 10,000 during the innings and ended the day on 10,076.

He was also the quickest in elapsed time — 10 years and 67 days from his debut, against Tendulkar’s 11 years and 103 days. Chris Gayle took the longest, 19 years and 169 days.

Rohit Sharma’s 241 innings

Rohit reached 10,000 in a Super Four match at the 2023 Asia Cup, against Sri Lanka at Colombo on 12 September 2023. It was an unshowy way to do it: 53 from 48 balls, in an innings where India were bowled out for 213 and still won by 41 runs after Sri Lanka folded for 172.

He crossed the line on 10,031, and his 241 innings put him 18 clear of Tendulkar and 36 behind Kohli.

The Indians on the list

India supply six of the fifteen and six of the top ten: Kohli, Rohit, Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni and Rahul Dravid. Sri Lanka are next with four — and all four are outside the top ten, the highest of them Tillakaratne Dilshan on 293 innings.

Ganguly is fourth on 263 innings, taking 13 years and 204 days; Dravid tenth on 287, and Dhoni seventh on 273 despite needing 320 matches to get there.

Fastest to 10,000 ODI runs: quick answers

Who is the fastest to 10,000 runs in ODIs? Virat Kohli, in 205 innings.

Who is second? Rohit Sharma, in 241 innings, reached in September 2023.

How many players have 10,000 ODI runs? Fifteen.

How long did Kohli take? 10 years and 67 days from his debut, the quickest of the fifteen.

How many Indians are in the top ten? Six.

See also our lists of the most centuries in ODI cricket, the fastest to 1000 runs in ODI cricket and the most runs in Asia Cup history.

Interested in cricket betting? Click here to check out the list of top sites.

Featured photo: AFP / Punit Paranjpe