Sachin Tendulkar holds the records of most runs and centuries in Tests and ODIs.
However, former England captain Kevin Pietersen feels otherwise. As per Pietersen, it would be difficult for the current Indian skipper to break Tendulkar’s 100 international tons record.
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Notably, the 31-year-old Kohli has already smashed 70 centuries across all formats in his 12-year long cricket career.
“It’s difficult because of injury and the longevity of Tendulkar’s career,” Pietersen said in an interview to TimesNowNews.com.
He also highlighted that Tendulkar was much more relaxed than Kohli on the field, and was not playing T20Is for most part of his career.
“Tendulkar wasn’t as emotional when he was in the field and he did not carry the same sort of aggressive attitude on the field. He was a lot more relaxed. It depends on how long Virat Kohli continues to play,” Pietersen pointed.
“Remember, Kohli plays all three forms of the game, plus he plays the IPL. For majority of Sachin Tendulkar’s career, there was no T20 cricket and there was no IPL. So it all depends on how long Kohli plays for,” he further added.
In a career spanning 24 years, Sachin Tendulkar played 200 Tests and 463 ODIs for India, scoring the world record number of runs (15921 in Tests and 18426 in ODIs) and centuries (51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs).
Virat Kohli, on the other hand, has hit 43 one-day international hundreds so far. He averages a mind-boggling 59.33 in the 50-over format from 248 matches with 11,867 runs while his T20I average reads 50.80 in 82 games with 2794 runs. He has also proved his mettle in Test cricket, scoring 7240 runs at an impressive average of 53.62 from 86 matches including 27 tons.