Virat Kohli’s rise in international cricket coincided with the exiting phase of Sachin Tendulkar in the early part of the previous decade. Virat Kohli had emerged as Tendulkar’s prime successor as the legendary batsman bowed out with staggering records and a great career.
Kohli has followed the footsteps of Tendulkar in terms of amassing heaps of runs across formats and now sits at 70 international centuries – although he has been sitting at that mark for more than two years now – which is the third most after Tendulkar’s 100 tons and Ricky Ponting’s 71.
Among many records he is closing in of Tendulkar’s, there is one which he wouldn’t want to break. That is of the most ducks registered for India by pure batters across formats.
While there are four bowlers – Zaheer Khan with 43, Ishant Sharma with 40, Harbhajan Singh with 37, and Anil Kumble with 35 – we have filtered it to players having batted from position 1 to 7.
Sachin Tendulkar, arguably the greatest batsman to have played the game, was dismissed for a duck on 34 occasions in international cricket in 664 matches. Following him is Virat Kohli, who was handed his 32 duck in the third ODI versus West Indies in Ahmedabad.
Former opener Virender Sehwag had accounted for 31 ducks while former skipper Sourav Ganguly was dismissed for a nought 29 times.
The comparison between Kohli and Tendulkar will go on till the end of the former’s career and only then a clearer picture will be available.
Kohli is still plenty of distance behind Tendulkar and is not helped by his dip in numbers over the past two years. Sachin Tendulkar sits atop the batting charts with 34357 international runs, while Kohli has amassed 23500 international runs so far. With his elite-level fitness, the 33-year-old Test captain is likely to play for about 5-6 more years at the highest level.
Kohli is facing a huge amount of scrutiny over his form after a poor display in the ODI series against the West Indies in which he recorded scores of 8, 18, and 0. However, his twin fifties in the South Africa ODI series have quickly slipped out of doubters’ minds.
