Virat Kohli vs Sachin Tendulkar: A statistical comparison at the age of 29

"There's no question of being compared to him. Because of everything he has given us, he doesn't deserve to be compared with anyone. At least not in the current generation."

Comparisons have been anathema for Kohli, who considers himself unworthy to be equated to the cricketer he grew up admiring and imitating.

Yet, differ as he may, from a purely statistical angle, Kohli seems to be on the course of surpassing the Little Master’s all-time records, at least in the one-day format. 29 is an age that is considered to be the peak for a batsman: Kohli has been bathing in a tub full of form for the last two years now and is in a happy space when it comes to his batting.

Let’s snap Sachin’s career at the 29-year-old mark, and analyse, merely as inquisitive cricket enthusiasts, where he stood as a cricketer prior to 24th April, 2002, and juxtapose it against Kohli, the modern great, to get a whiff of what the future holds.

Note: Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar carried India's batting during a time when the game was completely different: it wasn't slanted as much towards the batsmen, bowlers were more menacing and conditions were harsher. Furthermore, India's batting was much more fragile during his peak and T20s were far from being even conceived.

This is not a comparison between the abilities of Tendulkar and Kohli: this is merely a statistical piece of literature, putting their numbers side-by-side at a particular juncture in their respective careers.

What has to be inferred out of it, is left to the reader.

Sachin was playing under the firebrand captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, having established his reputation as the undisputed champion of the sport. His brand value was searing ahead, sustained by names like Pepsi, who had had a decade-long association with him. In 2001, Sachin signed a five-year deal with WorldTel, quite on the lines of what Kohli established with Puma last year.

From 1997-2002, Sachin averaged over 55 in each year

Indian cricket was going through an indifferent phase, and the team were months away from winning the NatWest Trophy, a victory that would galvanise them for a stellar performance in the 2003 World Cup, and set the tone for the next decade and a half.

A day before Sachin’s birthday, India completed a historic win at Port of Spain, symbolised by the gutsy Anil Kumble, jaw broken and all. Tendulkar was the toast of the game, scoring 119, his 29th Test century, bringing him at par with the legendary Sir Donald Bradman.

Here were Tendulkar's figures before he turned 29:

Tests - 94

Runs - 7869

Average - 58.72

100s - 29

50s - 31

Highest score - 217

In comparison, Kohli’s current Test numbers, at 29, stand as follows:

Tests - 60

Runs - 4658

Average - 49.55

100s - 17

50s - 14

Highest score - 235

Of course, Kohli’s Test career had a different tangent to it. Inducted into the team as a specialist limited-overs batsman, Kohli took three years to get a place in the Test side, whereas Sachin was a child prodigy who broke into the side as a 16-year-old, having been a rage in the domestic scene right from his school days.

Tendulkar steadily progressed in Tests, and had a century and five 50s to his name in his first 10 Tests itself. By his 29th Test, in 1994, his average crept above 50, and did not fall below the mark for the next 171 matches and 19 years, except for a very brief phase in 1997. From 1997-2002, he averaged over 55 in each year.

The 29th birthday mark was the supreme peak of Sachin’s Test career: his average touched 58.87 in February 2002, the highest in his Test timeline.

Kohli seems to have flicked a switch in the last two seasons, especially after being handed the Test captaincy. After his horrid run in England in 2014, he made his technique foolproof, becoming more side-on and playing from close to the body. A turning point in his career came with the 2014-15 series Down Under.

Kohli has shifted gears ever since being handed the captaincy

By 2016, he had figured out the Test puzzle completely, compiling huge scores as the year progressed, developing a sound temperament that arose from the responsibility of holding the batting together. The numbers symbolised it perfectly: last year, he racked up 1215 runs, at an average of 75.93, scoring three double centuries, and following it up with another early this year. Tendulkar had six overall.

A batsman's biggest challenge is scoring agains the red ball in alien conditions: Kohli still has the blot of not performing on English soil, and would be aiming to correct it during India's next tour. His numbers in the white flannels have picked up considerably over the last two seasons, forming the platform for what can place him in the glittering gallery of India's Test batting stars. Tendulkar's astronomical figures, however, are still miles away.

Kohli is well on course to obliterating all ODI records

While Kohli still has to comprehensively prove himself in the whites, one-day internationals present a completely different story.

Sachin Tendulkar is inarguably the greatest ODI batsman of all-time, yet the manner in which Kohli has been batting in the game’s intermediate format has forced even the staunchest of Little Master supporters to frown a tad.

As the end of 2017 approaches, Kohli seems well on course to obliterating Sachin’s once seemingly insurmountable tally of 49 ODI tons, having moved to second on the all-time list.

Tendulkar had a sub-standard ODI record for the first five years of his career, failing to bring home even one hundred in 76 attempts. The jinx was finally broken in September 1994, as a promotion up the order, against New Zealand early in the year, was a master-stroke that galvanised him to unleash his naturally attacking game in the initial overs, and pace his innings better.

In comparison, five years into his ODI career, Kohli had firmly entrenched himself in the middle-order, especially after a stellar season that saw him hit two huge scores in 2012: one, a breath-taking 133* (86) against Sri Lanka, and the other, a career-best 183 in the Asia Cup against Pakistan, in a game that was, incidentally, Tendulkar’s final ODI for India.

A major feature of Sachin’s career was his contribution in big events: the Master Blaster had, by the age of 29, played three World Cups (1992, 1996, 1999), as opposed to Kohli’s tally of two, averaging 58.83 from 22 games with three centuries under his belt.

Sachin scored nine ODI centuries in 1998

The year 1998, for him, was the golden streak of brilliance: the Desert Storm was just one of many masterclasses from the Little Master that year, equivalent to Kohli’s form in 2016. Tendulkar blasted a jaw-dropping nine ODI centuries that year, and truly turned a leaf in his career.

Tendulkar, at 29, had compiled these figures:

Matches - 287

Runs - 11,069

Average - 43.92

Strike-rate - 86.66

Highest score- 186*

100s - 31

50s - 55

Kohli, on the other hand, currently has these numbers:

Matches - 202

Runs - 9030

Average - 55.74

Strike-rate - 91.73

Highest score- 183

100s - 32

50s - 45

The 2013 series at home against Australia, where Kohli helped himself to two ODI hundreds and received the Test captaincy the very next year, buoyed him further, even as he took to a cleaner fitness schedule to become a top-notch player.

2016 was a watershed year for Kohli: as he settled in his role as a young team’s leader, his responsibilities increased, further accentuating his game as one who thrived under pressure. Records started falling with each passing game, and by 2017, with captaincy of all three formats on him, he averages over 55 in the format.

His average is above 45 in every Test-playing country, despite encountering a brief dip in 2015, similar to Tendulkar’s numbers in 2000.

At the age of 29, Kohli is neck-to-neck with Tendulkar when it comes to hundreds in the ODI format: while the Master Blaster had 31 tons from 287 games (a ratio of 9.25 ODIs per hundred), Kohli already has 32 from only 202 games (ratio 6.31, one of the best in the world).

The team composition was different for Tendulkar post-2002: several match-winners cropped up, giving him more space to play his game. A debilitating tennis elbow injury, however, seemed to have sworn to cut short his brilliant career, but he fought hard, went away from the game, and returned: measured and calculated in his strokepla, but equally effective.

The future holds even greater promise for Kohli: the second leg of his career will be with a team that is shaping itself to realise the collective dream of winning the World Cup in England.

However, when he embarks into the dreaded ‘late-30s’, Kohli might have to deal with slowing limbs, sluggish reflexes, and, perhaps, a change of role in the team. How he re-invents himself, holds the key to how his final numbers stack up.

If Kohli continues his splendid form in the run-up to the marquee tournament in 2019, and manages to maintain his ultra-shredded physique for the next decade, the passing of the baton from the heir to the apprentice will be complete, and the honours, for the greatest of all-time, might have to be shared.