By all counts, Virat Kohli is at the very end of his international career. He first announced a surprise retirement from the T20 format after winning the 2024 World Cup. Then, he was ostensibly forced out of the five-day format after a steep decline in form that coincided with the team’s abysmal results home and away.
ODIs were all that remained for undoubtedly the greatest white-ball batter of the modern era, and possibly of all time. That meant fewer opportunities to train, score runs or rectify mistakes.
There were murmurs about Kohli and former captain Rohit Sharma not being certainties for the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa – a tournament that could be their last in India colours.
With all these factors in play, Kohli has hit a purple patch that comes close to the very best of his illustrious ODI career. And that too at the age of 37.
Kohli back on top
Following a pair against Australia late last year, Kohli hit five consecutive fifty-plus scores against the Aussies, South Africa and New Zealand. They included two centuries, two unbeaten fifties and a 93.
If you include the two domestic List A matches he played for Delhi in the interim, that run goes up to seven straight fifty-plus scores, including three tons.
Such has been Kohli’s form, his average is nudging ever closer to 60 – which is around 20 more than the greatest batters in history. And he is back on top of the ICC ODI rankings as well.
Arguably Kohli’s greatest ODI run - there have been many - came in 2018. Starting from February that year in South Africa, Kohli went on a stupendous streak where his lowest score was 36, hit six centuries and three fifties across 12 consecutive ODIs.
Then there was the memorable 2023 ODI World Cup where he smashed three centuries and six fifties in 11 matches, accumulating 765 runs.
Is Kohli reaching that level again? We may not know for sure. Simply because ODIs are disappearing fast from international cricket. Full-fledged T20 series have taken precedence for all international boards as that is what bankrolls the system. Test series are now reduced to the bare minimum two matches. ODIs have to find a way between those two formats.
India and other nations will start to play more ODIs as the next ODI World Cup draws closer, as was the case during the previous edition in 2023. Still, hats off to Kohli for keeping the flame burning bright.
Kohli v Tendulkar
Kohli has reached that stage of his career where he is breaking some record or another every series. This time, against New Zealand, he went past Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara (28,068 runs) to become the second-highest run-getter in international cricket.
Now, only India legend Sachin Tendulkar (34,357) is ahead of Kohli in the runs tally.
In ODIs, Kohli (14,673) is a fair way behind Tendulkar (18,426). A gap of almost 4,000 runs even at Kohli’s current average of 60 will take well over 60 matches to overcome.
There are simply not enough ODI matches in international cricket to cover that gap, so it is safe to say Tendulkar will remain on top, possibly forever. Only Joe Root in Test cricket (13,943) has a realistic chance of breaking Tendulkar’s record tally of 15,921 in the five-day format.
However, Kohli has two records that will remain with him. The Delhi batter, now based in London, has a staggering 53 ODI tons, which will remain untouched – very few ODIs nowadays, remember?
And even if good batters play the format enough, it will be almost impossible to match Kohli’s average of nearly 60. And the most incredible part is that Kohli has this average after more than 300 matches. There simply won’t be another Kohli.
