Virat Kohli - A Boy amongst the Giants?
He averages over 50 in ODIs. He has 11 ODI centuries. 10 of those centuries have come in victories. He averages over 65 in ODI wins. And he is only 23 years old, and was a year old when his team mate Sachin Tendulkar made his international debut...
Virat Kohli has not even completed 4 full years in international cricket, yet he already boasts of achievements that some of the one day games greats did not even achieve.
Kohli already has as many ODI centuries as Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, and Aravinda De Silva managed in their entire careers. He has already scored more ODI centuries than Gautam Gambhir, Matthew Hayden, Inzamam Ul Haq, Kevin Pietersen, Javed Miandad, and Dean Jones to name a few.
One can't even say that he has been bashing the minnows on batting friendly pitches as he has scored ODI hundreds against Australia, England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand. Both at home, and away.
What is remarkable about all this is that he is still at the initial stage of his ODI career having established himself as a sure starter in the Indian starting XI just two years ago.
The start of his career has been so tremendous that he is currently among the only five batsman in the world who have a 50+ average in ODIs.
In this short period of time, Kohli has shown India and the rest of the world why he is such a vital player in the Indian team.
He is a proven match winner already and he recently demonstrated how big a match winner he is with probably two of the best ODI knocks you will ever see - the 133* (86) against Sri Lanka at Hobart and the 183 (148) against Pakistan at Mirpur.
Both the knocks came in knock out games, which Kohli single handedly won for India. The fact that India still didn't make the finals can be put down to fate, which might have deserted the Indian cricket team in recent times, but has been doing wonders for Kohli.
Such is Kohli's dominance in Indian victories that his batting average increases by 15 runs in matches that India has won. He has the fifth best average among all ODI cricketers in victories, placing him along side the likes of Brian Lara and Michael Bevan.
All this just makes me wonder what Kohli would have achieved by the time he hangs up his boots 15 years from now. The possibilities are endless.
There is no doubt that sustaining this kind of form over 10 to 15 years is something that has only been achieved by the giants of the game, but who can deny the fact that Virat Kohli is well on his way to becoming one of the giants of the game.
In an event hosted by Mukesh Ambani to celebrate Sachin Tendulkar's 100th international 100, Salman Khan asked Sachin who he thinks could break this record.
Sachin's response was Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are the two people who could. He probably mentioned Rohit only to please his fellow Mumbaiker...
But for Kohli, all I can say is - 88 more to go boy.
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