Team India started off poorly in their Asia Cup game against Nepal on Monday (September 4). After opting to bowl first, the Men in Blue dropped as many as three catches inside five overs to reprieve Nepal openers Kushan Bhurtel and Aasif Shiekh. Virat Kohli was one of the culprits dropping the latter while Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were the other players who dropped the catch. However, India redeemed themselves soon to pick wickets at regular intervals to storm back into the contest.
Likewise, Kohli also was back in the business plucking catches and this time he took a single-handed catch to send back Aasif Shiekh. This was the 143rd catch for the former India captain in ODIs and with it, he also went past Ross Taylor is the list of most catches taken in the format. Kohli is now at the fourth position behind Mohammed Azharuddin, Ricky Ponting and Mahela Jayawardene. While Azhar took 156 catches in his career, Ponting and Jayawardene plucked 160 and 218 catches respectively.
Most catches in ODI cricket
| Player |
Catches Taken |
| Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka) |
218 |
| Ricky Ponting (Australia) |
160 |
| Mohammed Azharuddin (India) |
156 |
| Virat Kohli (India) |
143 |
| Ross Taylor (New Zealand) |
142 |
Among active players, Virat Kohli is at the top with Chris Gayle (who is yet to officially announce international retirement) next having taken 124 catches. Martin Guptill is next with 104 catches while Pakistan's Shoaib Malik is at the fourth position with 100 catches to his name.
Among other records, Kohli is close to completing 13000 runs in ODI cricket and is only 98 runs away from the historic milestone. It remains to be seen if he will be able to score those many runs against Nepal. Rohit Sharma is also closer to a milestone as he needs 152 runs to complete 10000 runs in the ODI format.
