With a good form and a record-breaking streak, Virat Kohli seems to be playing on cloud nine. 2017 has proved to be one of his most successful years as he has been getting runs at a premium. Recently, he brought up his 5th double century in Tests, which was also his 51st century in international cricket. The double also meant he has 10 centuries across formats in 2017. These days Virat Kohli seems to be breaking records at the drop of a hat. The Indian captain has been playing non-stop cricket for some time now thanks to the grand, long home season, and hence opted for rest which the BCCI gratefully obliged. Virat Kohli will hence not feature in the 3-match One Day International series and as many T20Is against Sri Lanka.
The break will also help him regroup and recharge his batteries ahead of the all-important South African tour, which starts just after the Sri Lanka series. Team India will leave for South Africa on December 27. With Virat ‘record’ Kohli breaking records at will, we’ve thought ahead to figure out what all records he could break in the next 5 years of international cricket. Take a look:
1.75 international hundreds
Virat Kohli grabbed the limelight when he brought up his 50th international century with a match-saving ton at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. He is only the 8th international player to do so. With age on his side (29 years), he is certainly in contention to go past Sachin Tendulkar’s 100 international centuries, which is the benchmark. With the amount of cricket India has been playing in recent times, Virat Kohli will undoubtedly go past the 75-century mark in the next 5 years. India plays an average of 25 ODIs, 10 to 12 Tests and 10 T20Is in a calendar year, giving Kohli ample time to score the 24 more centuries required to reach the milestone. He can also become the fastest player to score 50 ODI hundreds.
2. 15,000 ODI runs
Sachin Tendulkar’s mammoth 18,426 runs in One Day Internationals is one record that every great would like to break. Virat Kohli has scored 9,030 runs so far in his career and became the fastest cricketer to reach the 9,000-run mark in ODIs. Again, with age on his side and the amount of cricket that is being played nowadays, breaching the 15K mark in the next five years is certainly within Virat Kohli’s grasp. In fact, if Virat Kohli stays fit and plays top international cricket for the next 10 years, many of Sachin Tendulkar’s records could be threatened to be surpassed.
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3. Most successful captain for India in Tests and ODIs
From Kapil Dev to Sourav Ganguly and then MS Dhoni, Indian cricket has been blessed with great captains over the years. Current skipper Virat Kohli, too, is a great modern-day leader. He is very proactive as a captain and the results are a testimony to his successful leadership. With 20 wins from 33 games, he is already the third most successful Test captain in Indian history. He needs only eight more wins to overtake Dhoni and become India’s best ever captain in the longest format of the game. In ODIs, Kohli has 33 wins from 43 games. He has the best win percentage as captain in ODI international history (with minimum 40 games as captain). Kohli has a win percentage of 64.81 and is only second to Steve Waugh. If Kohli plays cricket for 5 more years, the scenario could be very different.
4. 1000+ ODI runs in a calendar year the most number of times
Consistency, discipline and skill are required to score 1000 runs in a calendar year, one season after the other. Kohli has scored in excess of 1000 runs in four consecutive years and the record here as well is held by Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin has done so seven times. That means this is a record well within Virat’s radar and he could easily surpass Sachin with four more years of scoring a thousand runs or more.
5. Most international Man of the Match awards
Virat Kohli has 41 Man of the Match awards so far (25 in One Day Internationals, six in Test matches and 10 in Twenty20 Internationals). But at the top of the tree here, as well, is Sachin Tendulkar who has 62 Man of the Match awards in ODIs. If both the formats are taken into account Sachin Tendulkar has a total of 76 international Man of the Match awards.
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