Indian skipper Virat Kohli registered his 30th ODI century in the 5th match against Sri Lanka in Colombo. In doing so, he equaled former Australian captain Ricky Ponting’s tally who has an equal number of centuries.
Kohli is now on the joint-second position in terms of the most number of ODI centuries and is only behind the great Sachin Tendulkar who has 49 centuries in the format.
As Virat Kohli keeps growing in stature, the comparison between him and Tendulkar have also grown increasingly. With plenty of years ahead of him, many believe that Kohli would end up going past the legendary batsman’s record in ODI cricket.
When the Delhi-lad was asked about the same, he said that he doesn’t think about that and looks to take his side to a victory. He also said that it was a great honor to equal Ponting’s record but Tendulkar’s tally is still far away.
“I look to perform as well as I can for the team. These things keep happening as you go along in your career. You don’t target these things, but those stat windows are hard to neglect because they pop up everywhere after you’ve achieved something,” said the right-hander.
“It’s an honour for me to equal someone like Ricky Ponting. That’s not something that you aim for but, obviously, he’s a great player and as batsmen, we all respect what these legends have done.
“It feels great to equal one, but the great man [Tendulkar] is quite a bit away. That’s going to take a hell of an effort.
“Again, I am not thinking about that. It’s only about the team where even if I score a 90 not out and the team goes across the line, it’s good enough for me,” the 28-year-old added.
Kohli was impressed with the efforts of the spinners – Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. He reckons these bowlers grabbed the opportunity well in the absence of the regular spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
“These guys were brilliant, all three of them. Axar being a conventional spinner as well, he varied his pace, I think it was outstanding, he didn’t let the batsmen get on top of him.
“Kuldeep and Chahal being wrist spinners will always keep you in the game. I certainly felt that all three of them were pretty spot on with attacking all the time.
“It really helped us get those crucial wickets in the middle overs and at the same time helped us control the run rate as well.
“You might see changes in the bowling attack every now and then but these guys have grabbed the opportunity really well.
“It’s going to be a challenge among all the bowlers and the spinners that are going to be in the part of the bigger group to make it to the 2019 World Cup. We don’t want to be predictable in any way and we want to have an X factor if possible with the bowling attack as well,” Virat Kohli concluded.
