Current Indian Skipper Virat Kohli will never forget Vizag, as here only he became the fastest man ever to score 10,000 runs in ODI cricket by yet another century against the West Indies. He surpassed the man whom he regards as his hero, the one and only Sachin Tendulkar. Kohli took 205 innings to achieve this landmark whereas Tendulkar scored his 10,000th run in 2001 during his 259th innings against Australia. Comparisons are bound to come between the two greats in their respective eras. Kohli’s consistency is unparallel or rather unreal. The way he has uplifted his game in the last 5-6 years it is indeed a matter of huge research to find any other player in world cricket who has excelled so rapidly with unparallel consistency. Kohli made his ODI debut against Srilanka in August 2008 and since then he has never looked back in the limited overs format.
His first ODI hundred against Srilanka at the Eden Gardens in 2009 was heroic as he along with Gautam Gambhir who score 150 runs in the same match had a match winning partnership which helped India chase a 300 plus total. Gautam was chosen as the Man of the Match but he decided to give Kohli the award for his brilliance. Who thought that it was just the beginning of a great player in making, many players score a good hundred and then fade out gradually but Kohli was there to stay, he showed over the years that he has come here to rule.
His heroic exploits against Srilanka continued as he scored a match winning 133 not out of 86 balls which helped India to not only win the match but also register the second highest run chase by any team in Australia. It can easily be counted as one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time. Kohli is regarded as the ‘King of Chase’ and why not? Who will forget that historic 183 against Pakistan in the 2012 Asia Cup chasing 330. Then came the responsibility of being the Captain of the team and then also he succeeded with the bat. His first century as a captain came against West Indies in 2013. In October 2013 Kohli smashed two mind boggling hundreds against Australia in successful run chases. Till October 2018, Kohli has the most ODI centuries for an active player and is behind only the great Sachin Tendulkar in the all time list.
It is unfair rather to compare him with Tendulkar as Tendulkar played the initial years in the middle order at no.5 or no.6 whereas Kohli was always in the top order. Plus the amount of cricket which was played during Tendulkar's era was less compared to today. And the most important thing is the quality of bowlers which Tendulkar faced in his days. Tendulkar scored 34,000 plus international runs by playing the likes of Wasim Akram, Waquar Younis, Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Shane Warne, Jason Gillespie, Muralidharan, Shoaib Akhtar, Chaminda Vaas, Allan Donald and the list of great bowlers goes on and on. Whereas, Kohli was lucky enough to not face bowlers of this quality and also one should keep in mind that VK is playing in an era where the game is totally batsman friendly, from pitches to rules of the game, everything favours the batsmen. So it is better to not compare the two run machines, rather we should respect them for their achievements & contributions for Indian Cricket.
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