Virat Kohli surpasses MS Dhoni as India captain with most Test runs

India captain Virat Kohli (PTI)

New Delhi: Virat Kohli on Friday became the highest run-scorer in Tests as India captain, going past MS Dhoni and the legendary Sunil Gavaskar on the third day of the ongoing final Test against South Africa in Johannesburg.

Kohli's 54 in the first innings at Wanderers was followed by a useful 41 in the second, which took his tally of Test runs as captain to 3456. In total, Kohli has now scored 5554 runs in Test cricket from 66 matches. 

Dhoni had scored 3454 runs before retiring from the format in 2014, while Gavaskar had 3449 runs to his name as India captain.

At No. 4 in the list are Mohammad Azharuddin (2856) and Sourav Ganguly (2561).

The 29-year-old Kohli has captained India in 35 Tests so far, 19 at home and 16 overseas, scoring 2062 and 1394 runs respectively. This includes 14 centuries. Also, Kohli is the first India captain after Sachin Tendulkar to score a Test hundred on South African soil.

In the ongoing Test series against South Africa, Kohli is the only batsman to have scored a century. He made 153 in the first Test at Centurion.