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Virat Kohli tied Mohammad Azharuddin’s record for most ODI catches for India with his 156th catch in the 2025 Champions Trophy against Bangladesh.
Virat Kohli (Picture Credit: Sportzpics)
Virat Kohli created history on Thursday by going equal with Mohammad Azharuddin for the most catches for India in all ODI cricket during the 2025 Champions Trophy clash against Bangladesh in Dubai.
He achieved the record on the fourth ball of the 43rd over. Mohammed Shami bowled it slow and wide outside the off-stump, to which Jaker Ali tried to back away and hoick it to the leg-side, only to get a big toe-edge over long-on, where Kohli settled under and caught it with ease.
This was his 156th catch in ODIs, joint-highest with Azharuddin. The duo are well clear of the next three in the list — Sachin Tendulkar (140), Rahul Dravid (124) and Suresh Raina (102). Overall in international cricket, they are only behind Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene (218) and Australia’s Ricky Ponting (160).
Kohli has a good chance to pass Ponting in the 2025 Champions Trophy, with India guaranteed to play at least two more matches, against Pakistan and New Zealand in the group stage. If they qualify for the next round, they’ll get another match, the semi-final, and compete for the final.
Jaker’s wicket off Shami carried even more context. It was Shami’s 200th in ODI, making him the fastest Indian to that milestone and helping him go past Zaheer Khan as the highest wicket-taker for the country in ICC white-ball tournaments.
Jaker got out for 68 (114) but he was also dropped for zero by Indian skipper Rohit Sharma at slips off Axar Patel’s bowling when the all-rounder was on a hat-trick. Had that catch been taken, it would have created equally big records as Patel would have become the first Indian to take a Champions Trophy hat-trick.
Coming to the match, Bangladesh were at 35/5 before Patel’s hat-trick ball and before his wicket, he managed to put up 154 runs with Towhid Hridoy to save the Tigers from embarrassment. Hridoy went on to score a fighting century that took Bangladesh to a decent score of 228/10 in the first innings.
Shami went on to pick two more wickets to make it a five-wicket haul on his Champions Trophy debut, Harshit Rana also contributed three wickets while Patel ended the day with figure of (2/43).
