Virat Kohli will go among one of the greatest batters in the game’s history. Hence, not only is he constantly compared to his contemporaries with the likes of Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Joe Root, but he is also compared with former legendary players like Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting.

Recently, former Pakistan player Shoaib Akhtar tried to compare the challenges Sachin and Ponting used to face in ODI cricket, which the modern player hardly faces. “Back then, Sachin was playing with one ball, which would reverse swing against some of the best bowlers in the world. There was only one circle. Today, Sachin would have made a lot of runs,” the fast bowler was quoted saying when speaking to ANI.

“Virat would have been competitive (in our era),” he added. “He could have faced difficulties, but he would have scored the runs he has scored now. We would have faced a similar beating. But playing Wasim Akram is not easy. Virat is Virat,” Akhtar concluded.

Going past Sachin Tendulkar

During the India-New Zealand ODI World Cup semifinal, Kohli became the first player to claim 50 ODI hundreds. In doing so, he overtook Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar in the tally for most centuries in the format.

Tendulkar, who hung his boots a decade ago, had scored 49 tons across the 50 overs format and 51 more in the Tests. On the other hand, Kohli has 29 triple-digit scores and one more T20I hundred to go with his ODI tons, making for an overall 80 centuries in international cricket.

It wasn’t the only record held by Tendulkar that Kohli broke on the day, as he also went on to cross the former’s tally of 673 runs – most in a single ODI World Cup.

The 35-year-old has now gone past 2000 runs in 2023 calendar year for the seventh time in his career. No other batter could achieve the feat in the 146 years of cricket (Since the records have been kept).

Kohli previously achieved the feat in 2012 (2186 runs), 2014 (2286 runs), 2016 (2595 runs), 2017 (2818 runs), 2018 (2735 runs), and 2019 (2455 runs).

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