Virat Kohli: The greatest Indian batsman?

On August 8, 2018, Virat Kohli completed 10 years in international cricket and if the first 10 years are anything to go by, then by the time Virat Kohli will be finished with cricket, he will have most of the batting records to his name. Here is the list of records that Virat Kohli has a very realistic chance of breaking.

#1 Most One Day International (ODI) centuries

This one will perhaps be broken the fastest. Currently, Virat Kohli has 35 centuries in 211 matches. If he plays for the next 10 years the current record of 49 centuries will be left far behind. Assuming 10 more years of international cricket, which is easily possible given his fitness levels, the final figure may be around 70.

#2 Most ODI Runs

Virat has 9779 runs to his name after playing for ten years. The current record for most runs is 18426. Playing for next ten years will give him a very decent shot at breaking the record.

#3 Century of Centuries

Yes, one of the records which was never meant to be broken along with Don Bradman's Test average of 99.96 is in real danger of being broken. Virat Kohli has scored 58 centuries in 10 years of International cricket. This leaves him with 43 more centuries to break the record. If Virat can maintain the hunger for runs he will easily break this record.

#4 Test Centuries

This might take the longest time to break but Virat Kohli can surely reach there. Due to slow start in Tests, it might be looking too far-fetched as he has only 23 hundreds to his name so far. But a quick look at the recent test performance of Kohli will show that it is not too far fetched. During the period 2016 to 2018 Virat Kohli has played in 28 Test matches and has scored 3000 runs with 12 hundreds at an average of 71.42. He is currently on 23 hundreds. He needs 29 more centuries to break the record. Stretching the current form, Virat will need around 69 Tests to break the record of 51 Test centuries which will not take that long with the amount of Test cricket that Indian Team has been playing recently.

Some of the records mentioned above may be broken and some may not be broken or maybe all the records will be broken. If we assume that all the records will be broken, will Virat Kohli be the greatest Indian Batsman of all time? He might turn out to be the best batsman statistically but will he be the greatest Indian batsman ever?

Greatness is not just about statistical superiority. It is a combination of various other factors like earning the respect of opposition teams and your own team, respect that opposition crowd gives you and respect that your own home crowd gives you. Taking these factors into consideration, there will be one man who will always come ahead of him in Greatness and that man is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.