Sri Lanka vs India 2017: Reaching Sachin Tendulkar’s Record of ODI Centuries will take Hell of an Effort – Virat Kohli
Jan 9, 2019 at 4:02 PM
With every knock of Virat Kohli, the comparisons between him and the legendary Sachin Tendulkar gathers more steam, and it is now at an all time high after the India captain scored his 30th century in the fifth and final One-Day International against Sri Lanka on Sunday (September 3).
After coming in to bat when the team was 17 for one and was later reduced to 29 for two in pursuit of 239, Kohli played a brilliant knock of 110 not out to take the team home. The century not only helped Kohli to become the first captain to lead the team to a whitewash in Sri Lanka, but it also saw him going level with legendary batsman Ricky Ponting’s record of 30 ODI centuries. With only Sachin Tendulkar now ahead of him in the list of most ODI centuries, comparisons have surfaced once again.
Kohli, who has scored his centuries in only 194 ODIs, needs 19 more to go level with his illustrious predecessor. There is still a long way to go before Sachin’s record even comes in sight, and Kohli admitted that it would take a hell of an effort to go past Tendulkar.
“The great man (Sachin Tendulkar) is quite a bit away. That’s going to take a hell of an effort. Again, I am not thinking about that. It’s only about the team where even if I score a 90 not out and the team goes across the line, it’s good enough for me,” Kohli said at the post-match press conference.
He further said that it was an honour to equal Ponting’s record before stating that he is only focused on helping the team.
“It’s an honour for me to equal someone like Ricky Ponting. That’s not something that you aim for but obviously, he’s a great player and as batsmen, we all respect what these legends have done.”
“I look to perform as well as I can for the team. These things keep happening as you go along in your career. You don’t target these things, but those stat windows are hard to neglect because they pop up everywhere after you have achieved something,” said Kohli.