IND vs NZ: India's star batter Virat Kohli needs just 42 runs to become the second-highest run-scorer in international cricket. He might achieve this feat on Sunday in the first ODI against New Zealand in Vadodara. Till now, he has scored 27975 runs and is 41 runs behind Kumar Sangakkara (28,016) and 4,482 runs behind Sachin Tendulkar (34,357).

Since Sangakkara has played 666 innings, Kohli can break his record in 624 innings.

Most runs in men’s international cricket:

Player Country Matches Innings Runs Highest Average 100s 50s
Sachin Tendulkar India 664 782 34357 248* 48.52 100 164
Kumar Sangakkara Sri Lanka 594 666 28016 319 46.77 63 153
Virat Kohli India 556 623 27975 254* 52.58 84 145
Ricky Ponting Australia 560 668 27483 257 45.95 71 146
Mahela Jayawardene Sri Lanka 652 725 25957 374 39.15 54 136
Jacques Kallis South Africa 519 617 25534 224 49.10 62 149
Rahul Dravid India 509 605 24208 270 45.41 48 146
Brian Lara West Indies 430 521 22358 400* 46.28 53 111
Joe Root England 381 503 22166 262 49.36 60 114
Sanath Jayasuriya Sri Lanka 586 651 21032 340 34.14 42 103

Kohli can break another record, where he can surpass Tendulkar as well. If he can score 93 runs in this series, then he will be India's highest run-scorer against New Zealand in this format.

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So far, he has scored 1657 runs after playing in 33 matches, as Tendulkar is leading this list as he has scored 1750 runs after playing in 41 matches.

Kohli has been in sublime form, and he can break any record without any difficulty. After the third ODI against Australia, he has hit six half-centuries in this format, which also includes that of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Post-smashing 74 runs against Australia, he had hit two hundreds against South Africa and an unbeaten 65. And then, while playing for Delhi in the VHT after 10 years, he had smashed match-winning knocks of 131 and 77.

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This series against New Zealand will give the host enough chances to break all records, as New Zealand is missing most of its players owing to workload management or injuries.