In the third and final ODI of the series against Sri Lanka on Sunday, Virat Kohli notched his 46th ODI century en route to his undefeated 166, which gave India the victory and a 317-run victory margin to complete the series sweep. The debate over when, not if, Kohli would be able to beat Sachin Tendulkar’s ODI century record has been resurrected once more now that he is very much alive and returning. Sunil Gavaskar, a former captain of India, too made a strong “IPL” statement by making the major prediction.
Gavaskar said ‘Kohli might surpass Sachin’s record of 49 tons before the upcoming season of IPL this year, because of the form he is going through right now’. Kohli scored his 43rd hundred in 2019 and had a long pause after that to hit his 44th ton, that he scored against Bangladesh last month. Now as returning back in form, he smashed 3 centuries in his last 4 ODI’s. His speed of scoring and consistency has become the major factor to beat the record.
#VIRAT #KOHLI’S CONSISTENCY WITH THE BAT IS BEYOND #PHENOMENAL, SAYS #SUNIL #GAVASKARhttps://t.co/7X7LnRHpyE pic.twitter.com/B9vuAvxAz5
— sportsoncall (@sports_on_call) October 31, 2017
Another reason could be the no. of opportunities he had, as India will play ODI series with New Zealand (3 ODI’s) and Australia (3 ODI’s) before IPL this year, which means India is meant to play 6 ODI’s and Kohli need only 4 centuries to surpass the record. Six innings are enough for him to reach the milestone, according to his class and current form. India series with New Zealand will began from 18 January.
