Virat Kohli is Better Than Sachin Tendulkar at This Point in Time, Stats Prove it!
Kohli is fast chasing Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI centuries. And, it is safe to say he has ‘outplayed' Tendulkar at this point in time.
Virat Kohli slammed yet another century, his 35th in One-Day Internationals, as India sealed the six-match series against South Africa 5-1. It was Kohli’s third century in the series as he became the first batsman to score over 500 runs in a bilateral ODI series. And it is no surprise, given the form he is in. Since surpassing Ricky Ponting to become the second batsman with most centuries in ODIs, Kohli is swiftly moving towards Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 tons. At one point in time, it looked unlikely that anyone will break Tendulkar’s record, but now Kohli has drastically reduced the gap. No surprises, if he reaches the landmark of 50 ODI centuries in a couple of years.
What is interesting to note is that Kohli has taken relatively very much fewer innings than Tendulkar to reach the 35 ODI centuries. It took Tendulkar 316 matches and 307 innings to score the said number tons. Kohli, on the other hand, has played only 208 matches and 200 innings.
Also, when Tendulkar had 35 centuries under his belt, he had 62 half-centuries to go with it. Kohli currently has 46 fifties and that tells us about his conversion rate. Once the right-hander goes past 50-run mark it is hard to stop him.
Meanwhile, we have compared the stats between Tendulkar and Kohli. It is divided into two parts; A) Point in time when both the batsmen had 35 ODI centuries and B) when both the batsman had played 208 ODIs.
A) Tendulkar vs Kohli after 35 centuries
| Player | Matches | inns | Not Out | Runs | Ave | 100s | 50s | 0s |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 316 | 307 | 31 | 12367 | 44.80 | 35 | 62 | 14 |
| Virat Kohli | 208 | 200 | 35 | 9588 | 58.10 | 35 | 46 | 12 |
B) Tendulkar vs Kohli after 208 ODIs
| Player | Matches | Inns | Not Out | Runs | Ave | 100s | 50s | 0s |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 208 | 201 | 20 | 7728 | 42.69 | 21 | 43 | 9 |
| Virat Kohli | 208 | 200 | 35 | 9588 | 58.1 | 35 | 46 | 12 |
Interestingly, out of 208 matches, both the batsmen played more or less similar number of matches away from home which is 138 for Tendulkar and 129 for Kohli. Also worth noticing is the fact that during these matches, Kohli has more centuries (21) against his name than Tendulkar (13).
To sum up the above stats, Kohli is fast chasing Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI centuries. And, it is safe to say he has ‘outplayed' Tendulkar at this point in time.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 17, 2018 06:28 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).