Virat Kohli, on Monday (March 25), added another feather to his already illustrious cap during the match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in the ongoing IPL 2024.
While Virat Kohli has achieved and broken several batting records over the years, he has now created a fielding record as well. The Indian batting superstar has now become the Indian player with the most catches in T20 cricket. The record was previously held by former India batsman Suresh Raina.
Both were tied with 172 catches before Virat Kohli broke the record. The RCB star achieved the milestone when he caught Jonny Bairstow. Rohit Sharma is at third place with 167 catches, followed by Manish Pandey and Suryakumar Yadav, who took 146 and 136 catches respectively.
Indian Fielders with Most Catches in Men’s T20 Cricket
173 – Virat Kohli 172 – Suresh Raina 167 – Rohit Sharma 146 – Manish Pandey 136 – Suryakumar Yadav
The overall record is held by former West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard, who has taken a staggering 362 catches so far. No other fielder has managed to reach 300 catches so far. David Miller is second with 290 receptions, followed by Dwayne Bravo (271), Shoaib Malik (225) and Alex Hales (221) in the top five. In the overall list, Kohli is ranked 15th.
Bad return for Virat Kohli:
After being out of action for over a month, Virat Kohli finally returned to competitive cricket last week when RCB faced Chennai Super Kings in the first match of IPL 2024. The right-handed batsman had last played a competitive match in January during the home T20I series against Afghanistan.
While he was part of India’s squad for the first two Tests against England, he decided to withdraw from both games to be with his pregnant wife Anushka Sharma. The couple welcomed his second child, Akaay, last month. While Virat Kohli was expected to join the Indian team for the final three Tests against England, he decided otherwise.
In his comeback match, the former Indian captain failed to get going. He scored 21 runs off 20 balls before being dismissed by Mustafizur Rahman.