Virat Kohli looked in fine touch against West Indies in the second Test on Thursday in what was his 500th international appearance for India. After notching up his 30th half-century in the longest format of the game, the former India captain ended the first day’s play unbeaten on 87. As he resumes his innings on Friday, Kohli will be needing 13 more runs to bring up his first Test ton on foreign soil since December 2018.

However, the standout moment of the day came when Kohli surpassed the legendary South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis to become the fifth highest run-scorer in the history of international cricket. Before the start of the match, Kohli needed 74 runs to break Kallis’ tally of 25,534 runs in 519 matches. During the third session of play, Kohli achieved this feat, taking his total runs in international cricket to 25,548 runs in 500 games.

The former Indian captain became the first-ever batsman in the history of cricket to hit fifty in his 500th International game. Before Kohli, 9 players have breached the 500 mark but none has crossed fifty in this appearance.

Kohli's special love for No.4 in Test cricket saw another chapter being unfolded. The Indian star went past New Zealand's Ross Talyor to take the 5th spot in players to hit the most Test runs batting at No.4. Kohli has 7097 runs to his name, ten more than the Kiwi star. He is only behind Sachin Tendulkar (13492), Mahela Jayawardene (9509), Jacques Kallis (9033) and Brian Lara (7535) in the tally.

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