South Africa won the first Test by an innings and 32 runs in the first Test played at SuperSport Park. Although India lost this match but Indian batsman Virat Kohli managed to achieve another great record. In the second innings, Virat scored 76 runs (12 fours, 1 six) in 82 balls, during which Kohli once again registered his name in the record book.
With this half-century, he became the second Indian batsman to score the highest score of 50+ against South Africa in Tests. More importantly, after this innings, he also became the first batsman to cross the 2000-run mark in international cricket in 2023.
This year he ended the year with 2’048 runs in just 36 innings, with an impressive average of 66.06. During this period, he scored eight centuries and ten half-centuries and his highest score was 186. This is the seventh time that Kohli has scored 2000+ international runs in a calendar year.
His place as the first batsman to achieve such a historic feat has been confirmed. Earlier, Kumar Sangakkara had held this record for six years. Sachin Tendulkar and Mahela Jayawardene had scored 2000+ international runs in a calendar year five times each.
Virat Kohli has previously passed the 2000-run mark in 2012 (2’186), 2014 (2’286), 2016 (2’595), 2017 (2’818), 2018 (2’735), and 2019 (2’455). Had crossed. This record of his shows the consistency with which he has scored runs in international cricket.
Players who have scored 2000+ international runs most times in a calendar year
Here is the list of players with 2000+ international runs in most calendar years
| player | Country | No. Of Years |
| Virat Kohli | India | 7 |
| Kumar Sangakkara
| Sri Lanka | 6 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | 5 |
| Mahela Jayawardene
| Sri Lanka
| 5 |
Players with 2000+ international caps in the year 2023
| batsman | Run | number of innings |
| Shubhman Gill | 2,514 | 52 |
| Virat Kohli
| 2,048 | 36 |
| darryl mitchell | 1,970 | 53 |
| Rohit Sharma | 1,800 | 39 |
Also read: Indian team has suffered two big setbacks after losing the test match in Centurion.