Much
has been made of his joining the five-figure club in only 205 innings, by far
the quickest to do so. In particular, he needed 54 fewer innings than his
illustrious former India team-mate Sachin Tendulkar. As EspnCricinfo’s analysis illustrates, a straightforward comparison of statistics is meaningless; you
need to factor in the evolution in one-day batting during the past twenty
years.
Without
get bogged down in numbers, suffice it to say that, when comparing each player’s
scoring records with their contemporaries, there isn’t a lot to separate
Tendulkar and Kohli. Both are legends of their respective generations and those
of us who have seen them both play should savour the experience. Of course,
Kohli should have many more years ahead of him. His 30th birthday
may be looming but if he maintains the fitness, appetite and skill for another
decade, he could yet surpass SRT’s formidable world record of 18,426 runs.
Both had
their fallow periods but Kohli’s purple patches seem to stretch on and on. In the past
three years, he has accumulated well over 3,000 runs at more than one a ball.
In 2018 his average is an astonishing 144 and, unlike various other pretenders
to his throne, has the great ability to convert 50s into centuries. He rarely
throws his wicket away, knows how to judge a chase and all this while bearing
the weight of his nation’s captaincy.
Only
twelve others have passed 10,000 ODI runs, and already Kohli has eclipsed his
long-time colleague and captain MS Dhoni. Dilshan, Lara and Dravid may well be
overtaken during the winter, then Ganguly, Inzamam and Kallis are in his sights
by the end of 2019. The big five are further ahead but, unless something
unexpected happens, all bar Tendulkar will surely be hunted down by the time Kohli is 35.
Virat’s
average, not necessarily as significant a stat as in Tests, is an astonishing 59.90.
Nobody else, past and present, has come close. The likes of Sehwag, Shahid Afridi,
Brendon McCullum and AB De Villiers boast superior strike rates but Kohli looks
the complete one-day batsman without the need for wild slogging.
I
remember when he made his debut in 2008, he was seen as a one-day specialist
and it was another three years before breaking through into the Test team.
Questions were asked, and it took him a while before establishing himself.
Could he succeed in the five-day format?
Could
he hell?! I’m not sure what switch was tripped in 2016 but, alongside his ODI career,
his Test figures went stratospheric. He currently tops the rankings in both
formats and also at 12 in the highly
specialist T20 field. The man can do no wrong. Get him in the Brexit
negotiating team immediately! Put him in charge of eliminating global plastic use
right now!
Joe
Root, Kane Williamson, Steve Smith and Hashim Amla are all magnificent
all-round batsmen but at the moment Kohli is untouchable. Where he sits in the
all-time pantheon of limited-overs strokeplayers is a different matter. I
wonder how incredible blazing bladesmiths like Viv Richards, Everton Weekes, Gary
Sobers, Zaheer Abbas or even the more recent Javed Miandad, Brian Lara or Adam
Gilchrist would have fared in this era of short boundaries, helpful fielding
restrictions and a T20-led mindset. Pretty well, I fancy. I may be biased but reckon my idol Sir Viv would have eaten Kohli for breakfast.
I have
read comments about is character and personality which express contrasting
opinions. I don’t really know whether he is a lazy egotistical tyrant or a
well-meaning team player. He can’t be both! All I can say is that a haughty
remote cricketer wouldn’t be so ready to acknowledge the “Kohli, Kohli, give us
a wave!” brigade as I have seen him do in Cardiff. As for his position amongst
the all-time greats, I think it best to wait for his retirement before passing
judgment. In the meantime, I rate him above everybody other batsman playing at
the moment so let’s just enjoy watching a superb player in his absolute pomp.
