Former Australian cricket legend Ricky Ponting has reckoned that Indian cricket star Virat Kohli will surpass former teammate Sachin Tendulkar’s record for the most centuries in One Day Internationals (ODIs) during the ongoing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.
Currently, Kohli has 47 hundreds in 282 ODIs, two centuries short of Tendulkar’s enduring record of 49 centuries in 463 ODIs.
Moreover, the Master Blaster also tops the charts for the highest run-scorer in the ODI format with an impressive 18,426 runs while Kohli has 13168 runs under his belt in the 50-over format.
With as many as eight minimum ODIs to be played by India at the ongoing 2023 ICC World Cup, Ponting has backed Kohli to reach Sachin’s record during the marquee event on home soil.
“I think he will. I think he’ll definitely get two hundreds, whether he gets the three is another thing,” Ponting said on the latest episode of The ICC Review podcast.
“But the venues, the wickets and the grounds in India are just so conducive to scoring, making big runs. Who knows with him, it’s probably his last World Cup as well. If he gets that mindset, and we saw that he’s in pretty good touch, and we know with him he’s always hungry. He’s a winner, he wants success for himself and for his team. There is every chance at the end of this World Cup he could be equal with, if not breaking Sachin’s record, which is remarkable within itself,” he added.
Kohli, 34, has overcome a lean patch without an ODI century between August 2019 and December 2022 to add four centuries in just 15 innings since then.
“Forty-nine one-day international hundreds is amazing. But he deserves that, he works hard. You watch him even in the field, game one, he just looks ultra fit, is up for the contest every ball whether it’s in the field or with these batting hands. So I’d never write him off,” Ponting added.
Kohli has slammed two hundreds in past Cricket World Cups, notably achieving an unbeaten 100 in his tournament debut against Bangladesh in 2011.
Kohli had scored his first ODI hundred with a 107-run knock against Sri Lanka in December 2009. Recently, the run-machine reached the three-figures mark in the ODIs with and unbeaten 122 against Pakistan in the Asia Cup Super Four in September this year.