Virat Kohli seemingly is back to scoring centuries for fun after braving nearly three years without a triple-figure score to his name. During the first ODI between India and Sri Lanka in Guwahati on Tuesday, Kohli capitalised on a couple of chances to score his 45th ODI century which means he’s now just four tons away from equalling the all-time record of Sachin Tendulkar.
Tendulkar made 49 centuries in ODIs and 51 centuries in Tests, and remains the only player in international cricket history to have recorded 100 such scores.
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While Kohli has a distance to go to even come close to the milestone of 100 international centuries, he has a realistic chance of overtaking Tendulkar in the ODI list and it can happen in 2023 itself.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly thinks it’s difficult to compare the legendary Tendulkar with ‘special talent’ Kohli.
“It’s a difficult question to answer. Kohli is a fantastic player. He’s played many such innings, 45 hundreds don’t happen like this. He’s a special talent. There will be periods when he will not score, but he’s a special player,” Ganguly told news agency PTI.
Earlier, former India opener Gautam Gambhir had said that players from different eras cannot be compared because the playing conditions have changed.
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“It’s not about the record honestly. Virat Kohli will go on to get many more centuries than Sachin Tendulkar in 50-overs format. See, the rules have changed,” Gambhir said on Star Sports.
“You should not compare eras. It’s not fair to compare eras as well where there was one new ball as compared to now when there are 2 new balls with five fielders inside. But yes, he has been a master in this format and he has shown it over such a long period of time,” he added.
Another former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar pointed out the fact that Kohli isn’t an opener so he has less time and deliveries to get to big totals.
“He (Kohli) is not an opener so in every 50-overs game, he is not going there from ball number 1 and you are looking at the whole innings to get a hundred. He has batted at three most of the times so that is something you have got to consider. I have no doubt that he will overtake Tendulkar in one-day hundreds. I mean, it’s just four hundreds to equal Tendulkar. It may happen in a year and a half. It’s a 50-over World Cup year so I believe it could happen,” Manjrekar said.
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