Virat Kohli slipped back into the Vijay Hazare Trophy this week and, almost inevitably, came away with another line on the record sheet. Batting for Delhi against Andhra in Bengaluru, he moved past 16,000 runs in men’s List A cricket – the catch-all category for 50-over games outside T20s and first-class fixtures – in only his 330th innings. Sachin Tendulkar needed 391.
The raw figures are stark. Kohli now owns the speed record for every 1,000-run block from 10,000 upwards, and sits on 14,557 ODI runs from 296 knocks. Tendulkar finished on 21,999 across 538 innings, but the turbocharged schedules of the modern era give Kohli a crack at that number too if he keeps going.
While Kohli was rewriting one list, Rohit Sharma was busy in Jaipur adding to another. The Mumbai captain thumped 155 from 94 balls against Sikkim, registering his ninth 150-plus score in List A cricket. That draws him level with David Warner at the top of the pile. Rohit reached three figures in 62 deliveries, peppering the Sawai Mansingh Stadium with 18 fours and nine sixes before Mumbai cantered home by eight wickets.
The match also made Rohit, at 38 years and 238 days, the second-oldest centurion in Vijay Hazare history; only Bengal’s Anustup Majumdar, who scored two hundreds after turning 39 last season, comes ahead of him. Age, for now, is only a number.
Those returns matter because both players have stepped away from Tests and T20Is but remain central to India’s 50-over thinking. The next World Cup is still two seasons away, yet selectors will be quietly pleased to see their most senior batters tuning up in domestic cricket rather than preserving themselves for the IPL.
Delhi coach Mithun Manhas offered a simple verdict on Kohli’s form: “He turned up, batted like he’d never been away, and the dressing-room just lifted with him in it.” Mumbai mentor Amol Muzumdar was just as direct on Rohit: “People talk about mileage in his legs – that’s fine if the feet stop moving. They haven’t.”
Beyond the headline numbers, a few context points help. Only Tendulkar and Kohli sit inside the overall top five quickest to 16,000 List A runs; Gordon Greenidge (422 innings), Ricky Ponting (430), plus Graham Gooch and Viv Richards (both 435) make up the rest. Kohli is 36 and still chasing.
Rohit’s record for mammoth hundreds is slightly different in flavour. Warner’s nine have come in nearly 100 fewer List A innings, but the Australian’s 150-plus scores are spread across multiple domestic teams as well as internationals. Rohit’s nine have all come in India colours or for Mumbai, which keeps the argument simmering nicely.
Both men, back on Indian grounds that shaped them, now have a clear run at the closing stages of the Hazare Trophy. If they continue in this vein, the national selectors will have at least one piece of business solved well before the 2027 World Cup conversation turns serious.
