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In what must have been news to cricket followers all around the world, Virat Kohli didn’t get an ODI hundred in the five-match series against Australia. He scored only 180 runs in five innings with a highest score of 92, sixth in the previous ODI series run aggregates. Gasp! He couldn’t convert his previous ninety to a hundred. The nerves must be getting to him. What a failure. Lest the army the fans of Kohli go up in arms against my insensitive remarks, retweeting and abusing me in droves, let me clarify that I was only being sarcastic.
Now, with the series against New Zealand wrapped up, he’s managed to end his “slump”, get two more tons under his belt along the way (the first of them in his 200th match too, to bring up a pretty statistic). This puts him alone at 32 ODI centuries, equalling Ricky Ponting + , and with only Sachin Tendulkar ahead of him. Though the result of the match didn’t go his way even after Kohli’s contribution, scoring his 31st ton in his 200th match is remarkable*. It is no surprise that VVS Laxman compared Kohli’s appetite and place in the modern game to the diminutive legend from Bombay.
The position of Virat Kohli as an all-time legend in the ODI format of cricket can be taken for granted even if he were to retire today. When he approaches the end of his career, he will probably be spoken of in the same breath as Vivian Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and AB de Villiers. A batting average of nearly 56 runs per dismissal despite the fact that he bats most frequently at no. 3; one of the fastest to the various multiples of 1,000 runs milestones and centuries landmarks; a shiny World cup winner’s medal in his cabinet with a stabilising innings that resurrected the chase; a record number of centuries in a run-chase, and the list only goes on. It is hard to believe the sheer number of records that he boasts before he has even turned 29.
It is also scarcely believable that he’s just about entering the prime of his career. As a yardstick, the immensely talented, Tendulkar continued to play for India into his 40th year, albeit a bit frayed at the edges by then. Given Virat Kohli’s focus on athletic fitness and his lithe frame, how long he can play at the highest level if he can maintain his batting form is anybody’s guess.
For a different generation, Sachin Tendulkar was that benchmark of ODI excellence. In the late 1998, the then Indian skipper Mohammed Azharuddin (remember him?) became the highest run-scorer in ODIs. Before him, it was West Indian Desmond Haynes who had set the ODI record for most runs in a career at 8,648 runs in 1994. Haynes also had the record for the most ODI centuries in a career (18). In his record-breaking year of 1998, a 25-year-old Sachin Tendulkar swiftly moved from 12 ODI centuries to 21, obliterating the latter record. With his then run tally at ~7,500 runs, it was just a matter of time before Tendulkar would scale the Mount Everest of ODI cricket.
Of course, Kohli could entirely lose form and fade away, but given his progress so far, he’s at a point in his career where he can entertain thoughts about his end-career ambitions.
Tendulkar was only done 14 years later in 2012, and finished with nearly every batting record worth having in ODI cricket. The most runs at 18,426; the most number of centuries (49) and half-centuries (96); the first man to scale the 200-run barrier in a single ODI innings (cricket’s own version of Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile), and so on — you get the idea. How close is Virat Kohli to beating Tendulkar’s records? Is it possible at all? There needs to be a detailed appraisal of their records before any conclusion can be drawn in this matter.
Virat Kohli made his first ODI hundred in his 13th ODI innings. Coming in to bat at no. 4 at the fall of Tendulkar’s wicket in a steep chase of 316 runs against the Sri Lankans at Kolkata, Virat Kohli made a composed 107. Ably supporting Gautam Gambhir who headlined the chase with a 150, the two batsmen hunted the target down with minimum fuss. Right from his early days, Kohli had displayed a keen sense to chase down a target in a team which already had capable chasers. In contrast, Tendulkar’s first ODI hundred came in his 76th innings, against the Australians in 1994, in Colombo. It is worth remembering that Tendulkar had batted in the middle order till then in ODI cricket; an inspired promotion in New Zealand changed Tendulkar’s ODI fortunes. In fact, Tendulkar’s ODI hundred–gathering prowess is not dissimilar to Kohli’s insatiable appetite today — from his 1st to 31st hundred, the master took 196 innings, whereas the protégé has taken a mere 180 innings in these run-inflated times. It could be argued that Tendulkar’s run appetite was more gluttonous than Kohli.
The Top 15 converting batsmen
Player | Runs per innings | Player | Inningses/100 | Player | Inningses/50+ score |
HH Amla | 47.62 | HH Amla | 5.96 | IJL Trott | 2.50 |
V Kohli | 46.292 | V Kohli | 6.19 | Babar Azam | 2.50 |
AB de Villiers | 44.26 | Q de Kock | 6.76 | V Kohli | 2.53 |
JE Root | 43.96 | DA Warner | 7.07 | HM Amla | 2.58 |
IJL Trott | 43.37 | S Dhawan | 8.18 | JE Root | 2.68 |
Q de Kock | 43.25 | AB de Villiers | 8.60 | KS Williamson | 2.73 |
DA Warner | 43.13 | JE Root | 9.10 | AB de Villiers | 2.76 |
Z Abbas | 42.87 | SR Tendulkar | 9.22 | S Dhawan | 2.81 |
KS Williamson | 42.30 | ME Trescothick | 10.16 | IVA Richards | 2.98 |
S Dhawan | 42.09 | LPRL Taylor | 10.41 | Z Abbas | 3.00 |
SR Tendulkar | 40.77 | HH Gibbs | 11.43 | F du Plessis | 3.00 |
CG Greenidge | 40.43 | CG Greenidge | 11.55 | CG Greenidge | 3.02 |
IVA Richards | 40.25 | WTS Porterfield | 11.56 | DM Jones | 3.04 |
ML Hayden | 39.57 | RG Sharma | 11.64 | JH Kallis | 3.05 |
MJ Guptill | 38.417 | MJ Guptill | 12.00 | SR Tendulkar | 3.12 |
The extent of run-inflation can be sensed by looking at the names and time periods of the players who clocked in the highest runs per innings (RPI) in the history of ODI cricket. 10 out of 15 players with the highest RPI are still active today, with Kohli at second place; so are 11 of the 15 players with the lowest number of inningses per century, the top seven of which are from today’s times with Tendulkar in eighth place. Even the inningses per fifty-plus score (which is a lot more accommodating of middle order batsmen) parameter tells a similar story — top 3 batsmen are dominating ODI cricket like never before. No doubt Virat Kohli has been an excellent performer, but he’s clearly in the same league as some of his other illustrious contemporaries when compared to Tendulkar, who was in a league of his own — as were Richards, Greenidge, Jones and Abbas at other times as well.
Nonetheless, Virat Kohli could possibly overhaul Tendulkar’s records given time. This is highly dependent on whether he manages to stay at the same performance levels for the rest of his career. If we assume that he does manage to perform at 90% of his present ability from now on, he’d need another 229 inningses to overhaul Tendulkar’s tally of runs, and 129 inningses to overcome his hundreds tally. Given that he’s played about 200 matches for 192 inningses, and he’s needed nearly nine years to reach this point, he’d need a full decade to overcome Tendulkar’s run tally at the theorised 90% Virat Kohli capacity; the hundreds tally is a lot more in sight — “only” six more years. Of course, he could entirely lose form and fade away, but given his progress so far, he’s at a point in his career where he can entertain thoughts about his end-career ambitions.
Back when Tendulkar was breaking every record in the book, his ODI records looked unscalable, out of bounds, beyond the realms of possibility, and settled for posterity. Now, at nearly 9,000 runs (he is sure to pass it by the end of the year), and at 31 ODI centuries, at Everest base camp, this new run-machine Virat Kohli has Sachin Tendulkar’s ODI record peaks in sight. Don’t bet against it happening; after all, nothing motives Kohli more than a target to chase.
*(All stats correct upto October 22, 2017)
+ (Statistic updated on October 30, 2017)
