Now that Virat Kohli is back to form, having broken his century drought that had stretched to over three years, talks of him chasing and breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 100 international centuries have resumed. With 71 international tons, Kohli is the second-highest, joint with former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting.
Some feel that Tendulkar’s 100 hundreds mountain is too high for Kohli, or anyone, to climb. But if not overall international tons, Kohli can certainly surpass Tendulkar’s 49 ODI centuries record: 33-year-old Kohli has 43 ODI tons under his belt so far and is expected to play the ODI format for at least a couple of more years, maybe till the 2025 Champions Trophy. This gives him ample time to register 7 more ODI hundreds and cross Tendulkar.
One-Day mein toh main paaji (Sachin) ko pakad loonga: Virat Kohli had said
Ashwin Krishnan, the head of sports marketing at Oakley, tells an interesting story, one which highlights Kohli’s confidence and ambition. Krishnan reveals that when he was about to sign Kohli for their company back in 2013, the 24-year-old youngster then had told him that he was convinced that he will be able to catch Tendulkar at least in ODIs!
“An understatement would be to say that Virat Kohli’s one-day record is phenomenal. And whether he reaches Sachin’s record or not is not important; the fact that he is getting closer is. Here is a quick tale I will share with you. For Oakley, we traveled to LA in 2013 to sign Virat. The two of us were seated,” Krishnan said on Jamie Alter’s Glance chat show, The Alternate View.
“I flew down from Mumbai and joined Virat and his manager Bunty. To sign him, I dropped everything I was doing in the Champions League. And as a 24-year-old with 9 ODI hundreds under his belt, he sat down and said, ‘One-Day mein toh main paaji (Sachin) ko pakad loonga.’ “Paaji had 49 hundred,” he recalled.
As a youngster, to think of breaking Tendulkar’s records even in the ODI format showed the fire in Kohli’s belly and his hunger to achieve greater things.
Kohli slammed his maiden T20I century on Thursday against Afghanistan in Dubai. He finished the Asia Cup 2022 with 276 runs in 5 innings notching up 2 fifties and a century.
There are plenty of limited-overs matches in the coming months for India and after the T20 World Cup in November, the Men In Blue will strongly focus on the 50-over format in order to prepare for the 2023 World Cup at home.
