When it comes to limited-overs cricket, India skipper Virat Kohli is no less than a monster as he surpassed Australian batting legend Ricky Ponting’s tally of 30 ODI hundreds in the ODI series against New Zealand in October. In the list of highest century maker, Kohli now finds himself in the number 2 position only behind Sachin Tendulkar, who is comfortably placed at the pinnacle with 49 tons.
Such is Virat’s domination in One-Day International cricket that he has 18 hundreds in chasing in which India have emerged victorious on 16 occasions. Moreover, the29-year-old averages a mind-boggling 55.74 after 202 ODIs with 9030 runs. Besides, he is the only batsman on the planet to boast an average of over 50 in the Twenty-20 format after 55 games.
As far as Kohli’s comparison with India’s legendary batsman and his idol Sachin Tendulkar is concerned – the Delhi lad is way ahead of the Master Blaster at the similar stages of their respective careers. After 202 ODIs, Virat leads Sachin by 1576 runs and boasts of 13 more hundreds than the batting maestro.
However, the big question is whether Kohli is on right track to overtake Sachin’s mammoth tally of 18426 runs. The answer is there in the average. Since his ODI debut in 2008, Kohli has averaged 1,003 runs every year with three centuries. Virat celebrated his 29th birthday last month whereas Tendulkar retired at the age of 40.
If Kohli plays for 11 more years and accomplishes the numbers mentioned above, he can potentially accumulate 20,000 ODI runs and notch up 65 hundreds.
After completing his 30th ODI ton against Sri Lanka in August, Kohli had admitted that surpassing Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of ODI centuries would take “one hell of an effort” given that the batting legend is still a way ahead.
“The great man (Sachin Tendulkar) is quite a bit away. That’s going to take a hell of an effort. Again, I am not thinking about that. It’s only about the team where even if I score a 90 not out and the team goes across the line, it’s good enough for me,” Kohli had said.
“It’s an honour for me to equal someone like Ricky Ponting. That’s not something that you aim for but obviously he’s a great player and as batsmen we all respect what these legends have done,” he further added.
