Virat Kohli scored a new personal records in the first One Day International (ODI) against Sri Lanka. During the match on Tuesday in Guwahati, Kohli scored back-to-back centuries. This hit was his 45th ODI ton against Sri Lanka and his 73rd hundred in international cricket.
With these new milestones, Kohli’s records is now on par with cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin Tendulkar is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. During his career, he achieved the record for the most hundreds in both Tests and ODIs.
A 45th 💯 in ODI cricket for Virat Kohli 🙌#INDvSL | 📝: https://t.co/E7dL6sWRIi pic.twitter.com/c8asH9SgVe
— ICC (@ICC) January 10, 2023
Kohli nearly beat Tendulkar’s record of 20 ODI tons at home with this century. While Tendulkar reached the landmark in 164 matches, Kohli did it in 101 games.
On the other hand, Kohli surpassed former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most centuries against Sri Lanka in ODIs. Tendulkar has scored eight while Kohli reached nine centuries. In addition, the player has a total of 45 ODI centuries in his career, while Tendulkar has 49 tons.
Though Kohli did not beat Tendulkar’s ODI career record, he surpassed former Australia batter Ricky Ponting in terms of the greatest number of career centuries.
Following the match, Kohli is five ODI centuries away from breaking Tendulkar’s record for most hundreds in the format. Kohli can break another record as he needs 180 more runs to enter the top 5 all-time run-getters in ODIs.
If Kohli scores a hundred in the series, he will also equal his and Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most ODI centuries against one team.
Before the ODI against Sri Lanka, Kohli had a 3-year period where he did not hit any century. It was during India’s tour of Bangladesh that Kohli ended his ODI century drought.
During the match, Kohli achieved his 45th ODI century off 87 balls. After Kohli reached his milestone, he was dismissed by Rajitha for 113, off 87 balls, in the penultima.
At the end of their first ODI against Sri Lanka, the Indian team made a total of 373 runs after losing 7 wickets. In addition to Kohli’s 113 runs off 87 balls, Rohit Sharma played brilliant innings of 83 runs off 67 balls.
Currently, Kohli has hit 27 test centuries in 102 matches, along with 45 ODI hundreds now in his 265th match. He also has a T20 hundred to his name. Ponting, on the other hand, scored 41 test tons and 30 ODI tons in his illustrious career.
Before the first ODI match between India and Sri Lanka, Hardik Pandya led India to win the T20 series by 2-1. India also achieved new records in their 3rd T20I match. During the match, batter Suryakumar Yadav, with 843 balls, became the fastest player to reach 1,500 runs in the shortest cricket format.
Aside from that, it was announced that Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of the ODI series against Sri Lanka.
“Bumrah hasn’t traveled with the team to Guwahati. He still needs some more time to get back to full fitness as he will be needed during the Australia Test series,” a senior BCCI source said in an interview.
It was during this time that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s return was confirmed for the ODI series.