Following a record-extending 51st One-Day International (ODI) century, India’s Virat Kohli has been rated as the greatest one-day batter by several former players.
In a Champions Trophy encounter in Dubai on Sunday, the 36-year-old led India to a resounding six-wicket victory over Pakistan with a masterful performance of 100 not out.
When he reached 15 runs in the chase against Pakistan, Kohli joined the select company of Sachin Tendulkar (18,426 runs in 452 innings) and Kumar Sangakkara (14,234 runs in 380 innings) as the fastest batter to reach 14,000 ODI runs. It was his 299th 50-over outing, and he now has 14,085 runs in only 287 innings.
His outstanding innings has once again ignited the debate over the greatest batter in one-day cricket.
Viv Richards dominated the 50-over format in the fledgling years when the game was essentially a condensed version of Test cricket.
The West Indian averaged 47 and his legendary 189 not out against England in 1984 stood as the highest ODI score for a dozen years.
It was his strike-rate of 90 that really stood out in an era where 70 was deemed decent on surfaces that offered balance between bat and ball.
Indian legend Tendulkar dominated the subsequent two decades amid the rise in ODI popularity. Batting at the top of the order, he was indefatigable as he rewrote the record books. He played in the most ODIs (463), scored the most runs (18,426) and – until November 2023 – had the most centuries (49).
There are also the consistent Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara and South African AB de Villiers, with his power hitting, in the fray.
However, now there’s a growing consensus among certain former players that Kohli could be the greatest ODI player, surpassing even Tendulkar.
Former England captain Michael Atherton feels that there’s nobody better than Kohli in ODI history when it comes to run-chases. Kohli has hit 28 centuries during run-chases in ODIs – the most in history. Tendulkar, with 17 hundreds, is second on this list followed by Rohit Sharma who has 16.
“Virat Kohli in a run-chase in 50-over cricket, there’s been nobody better in the history of the game, really. 51 century is an unbelievable number,” said Atherton on Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.
“I mean, he’s got 51 and he passed 14,000 runs, which only Tendulkar and Sangakkara have got past in one-day cricket. And he got them in 60-odd innings quicker than Sachin, and about 90-odd innings quicker than Kumar. He’s been a great all-format player, clearly, but you’d probably say that ODI is his absolute best format.”
Another former England captain Nasser Hussain reckoned that Tendulkar, Sangakkara and de Villiers will be part of the greatest ODI player debate, but Kohli surpasses them all.
“You’d have to say he’s probably the best player of all time in ODIs with those stats,” said Hussain, England’s captain from 1999 to 2003. “You’d have Tendulkar in the same conversation. Kumar, AB de Villiers; they’ve been some great ones, but he’s right at the top of the tree.”
Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting too hailed Kohli after his unbeaten ton against Pakistan.
Speaking on the ICC Review, Ponting said he has not seen a better ODI player than Kohli. He noted that the India star would want to go on and become the leading run-scorer in ODI cricket.
Ponting said: “He’s obviously been a champion player for a long, long time. And particularly in the white-ball formats, where he’s been an unbelievably good 50-over player. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better 50-over player than Virat Kohli.”
Ponting admired Tendulkar’s longevity, which has kept him 4,000 runs ahead of Kohli. However, he noted that Kohli can reach the milestone if he maintains his hunger for runs.
In India, Kohli, current captain Rohit Sharma and Tendulkar are often the subject of intense debates and comparisons.
Recently, former Indian opener Virender Sehwag weighed in on this debate, revealing who he believes is the best ODI batsman among these three giants. In a panel discussion with Cricbuzz, Sehwag unveiled his top five ODI batters.
At No. 5, he placed the explosive West Indian Chris Gayle. South Africa’s versatile maestro de Villiers took the fourth spot, while Pakistan’s cricketing kingpin Inzamam-ul-Haq was third.
Sehwag then went on to praise his idol, Sachin Tendulkar, dubbing him a “lion” of the game, and ranked him as the second-best ODI batsman in the world.
Sehwag then named his Delhi compatriot Kohli as the No. 1 ODI batsman.
Interestingly, despite Sharma’s remarkable feat of scoring three double centuries in ODIs, Sehwag didn’t include him in his top five list, and chose Kohli as the superior player over both Rohit and Tendulkar in the format.
