The Indian team’s skipper Virat Kohli has made it a habit of breaking records. He surpassed Ricky Ponting’s record of 30 hundreds in ODI cricket, yesterday, scoring his 31st-ton on a tricky wicket playing the 200th match of his career against the mighty Kiwis. Only Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar is ahead of him with 49 ODI centuries.
Former India Captain Sourav Ganguly, while talking to India Today affirmed that there is a possibility that Kohli can dethrone Sachin from the highest number of centuries list. The southpaw showered heaps of praises on the Delhi batsman saying that when it comes to ODI cricket Kohli is as good as Tendulkar. He also admitted that scoring 19 centuries is a tough job to do as many cricketers don’t get 19 centuries in their career. Ganguly believes that Virat will win more matches for India in future and age will not be a barrier for him keeping his fitness level in mind.
Arguably one of the best opening pairs world cricket has ever seen, the duo holds a record of 258 runs partnership for the opening wicket against Kenya in 2001. The left-hand-right-hand combination at the top of the order has given a lot of joy to the Indian cricket fans. However, Sourav believes the Virat is already in that league of great players as his partner from Mumbai. Kohli also became the highest run-scorer after 200 ODI’s and took 79 ODI’s less from Sachin to score the 31st hundred.
Talking about his innings from yesterday which ended up in a losing cause, Sourav admitted that it was tough to bat on that wicket and Kohli being champion batsman paced his innings quite well. The former India captain also pointed out that the team management has to look after the middle order to get rid of some pressure from Kohli. Kohli can adapt to situations very quickly and can pace his accordingly is a positive thing which the youngsters should take a note off.
India will try to rectify their mistakes before they take on the Kiwis in the second match of the series on Wednesday and will be eager to level the three-match series.