Rishabh Pant becomes the third Indian after Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to register this elusive milestone

On the auspicious day of Thursday (November 22), the star Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant got added to the elite company of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. The 27-year-old stumper became the third Indian after the two legends to achieve the milestone of scoring 2000 runs for the country in the ongoing World Test Championship. Pant, who has been out of action for over a year due to multiple injuries caused by a road accident on December 30, 2022, has helped himself with 2007 runs from 30 matches.

For the record, Pant was 3 runs away from kaleidoscopic club of 2000 runs runs, and he accomplished it by hitting three runs on the second ball of the 19th over of the first innings of India, in the ongoing first Test match staged at the Optus Stadium in Perth.

Rohit, who is currently away from the team due to injury in the first Test against Australia, is the player who has scored the most runs for India in the WTC to date apparently holds the record. So far in their careers spanning 37 matches, the 37-year-old right-handed batter has scored 2685 runs.

Virat, who was at the helm in India’s WTC Final in the year 2021, has scored a total of 2432 WTC runs in 42 matches played thus far.

Most runs for India in WTC

Rohit Sharma – 2685

Virat Kohli – 2432

Rishabh Pant – 2007*

Shubman Gill – 1800

Cheteshwar Pujara – 1769

The record for most runs in the history of WTC is owned by English player Joe Root. The former captain of the English cricket team, who happens to be at the top of the ICC test batter’s ranking as well, has scored 5325 runs in 61 matches played so far. He is the only batsman in the whole world who has crossed the figure of 5000 runs in the overall history of this tournament.

Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith moved to second and third in the list of most runs scored in a match in Border-Gavaskar Trophy, both cricketers having scored 3904 and 3486 respectively in 46 matches.

In the current Test match, Pant will have an opportunity to surpass the record held by MS Dhoni for the most Test centuries scored by an Indian wicketkeeper batter. Dhoni racked up six Test centuries in his 90-Test career, while in only 39 Tests, Pant has already racked up six centuries.

He almost achieved the feat in the second Test against New Zealand but was unfortunately out for 99 runs.

Pant, who returned to play red-ball cricket for India only after a gap of more than 21 months in September 2024, scored a century in the first Test match against Bangladesh which was held in MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai from September 19-22.