Hot on Tendulkar's heels - Kohli's race towards 50 ODI hundreds
He reminded Viv Richards of himself. Michael Vaughan has called him the GOAT in ODIs. Even Shane Warne, quite possibly the most aggressive legspinner of all time, said he would have bowled a defensive line against him. Such has been Virat Kohli's form over the last few years; it is not too far-fetched to say there is a chance he might break Sachin Tendulkar's record of 49 ODI hundreds by the end of 2019.
After scoring his 41st, against Australia in the third ODI in Ranchi, his batting average crossed 60 for the first time. In all, he has 10,816 runs from 225 ODIs. For more numbers that make Kohli the phenomenon he is, read on.
Since last World Cup
No batsman has scored more runs than Kohli's 4279 in 67 innings over the last four years. Rohit Sharma at second is 600 runs behind (3639 in 69) while Joe Root (3288 in 69) at third is almost a 1000 runs behind.
ODI centuries since 2017:
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) March 8, 2019
VIRAT KOHLI - 15
South Africa - 15
Pakistan - 14
Bangladesh - 13
West Indies - 12
Sri Lanka - 10
International centuries since 2017:
VIRAT KOHLI - 25
Pakistan - 24#IndvAus
Kohli's average of 80.73 in this period is almost 12 points higher than the next best on the list (Ross Taylor 68.85). In terms of strike rate, Kohli (98.34) is behind only David Warner and AB de Villiers among those who average at least 50.
A year-wise breakup since the last World Cup, however, says 2015 wasn't that great a year for Kohli. His average and strike rate were the lowest since his debut in ODIs. But since the start of 2017, he has scored 3246 runs and 15 hundreds. Entire countries haven't made that many hundreds in this time period.
The hundred fest
Kohli takes a mere 5.29 innings to score an ODI century (41 in 217). No one in the world comes close. The second-placed Hashim Amla requires at least 6.33 innings for each of his hundreds (27 in 171).
One big reason for this is how easily the India captain turns his fifties into hundreds. He has got to a fifty 90 times in ODIs and converted 45.56% of those into a three-figure score.
Kohli is also the only batsman to have scored five or more hundreds in a calendar year on three occasions: six in 2017, six in 2018 and five in 2012.
Out of his 41 hundreds, 25 have come in chases with India winning 21 of them. Overall, India have won 33 of the 41 matches where Kohli scored a hundred, lost seven and tied one.
Kohli v Amla - a battle of the greats
Kohli was the fastest to 5000 (joint), 6000 and 7000 ODI runs in terms of innings before Amla broke each of those records without any fuss. In fact, Amla is the fastest to everything from 2000 runs onwards, and needs 90 more, from three innings, to beat Kohli once again and become the quickest player to 8000 ODI runs.
However, in the last couple of years Kohli has created a sizeable gap between Amla and himself. He has taken only 14, 19 and 11 innings for each thousand after 7000, while Amla's scoring rate has dropped quite a bit.
Kohli as captain
Kohli's batting feats as captain are equally mind-boggling. In 66 ODIs leading India, he has smashed 4096 runs at an average of more than 83. His 19 hundreds as captain are behind only Ricky Ponting, who scored 22 in 230 games.