Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were both in supreme touch in their opening knocks of IPL 2026. While Kohli slammed an unbeaten 69 off 38 balls for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Rohit blasted 78 off 38 balls as Mumbai Indians (MI) cruised past Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
In the process, MI broke a jinx by notching up their first win in their opening match of an IPL edition since 2012. They had started with a loss in the last 13 IPL seasons.
The win also saw MI becoming the first team to win 25 matches against an opponent in the IPL, taking their head to head record against KKR to 25-11.
Rohit also broke a record held by Kohli during his knock by taking his tally of runs against KKR to 1161. This includes the matches he played against KKR while representing Deccan Chargers as well as MI.
Interestingly, the next two slots in the list of most runs against a single team in the IPL are filled by Kohli who has scored 1159 runs against Punjab Kings and 1146 runs against Chennai Super Kings.
So this is one record that Rohit is likely to hold only for a short period of time.
Incidentally, Kohli and Rohit are the only two players so far to have taken part in every edition of the IPL. Two others have played in each of the previous 18 seasons and could join that elite club soon -- Manish Pandey and MS Dhoni.
Pandey was one of the five impact subs named by KKR for the match against MI, but did not play, while Dhoni is out for at least two weeks due to a calf strain but is expected to play for CSK later in the tournament.
Kohli and Rohit are also the two highest run-getters in IPL history. Kohli is well ahead in first place, having piled up 8,730 runs at an average of 39.86 and a strike rate of 133.14. Rohit has amassed 7,124 runs at an average of 29.93 and a strike rate of 132.61.
However, when it comes to trophies, it's Rohit who has the more silverware -- having won the tournament a record six times, while Kohli finally won the IPL for the first time in 2025 on his 18th attempt.
