23rd December 2019 day. Virat Kohli scored a century in the Kolkata Test against Bangladesh. It was his 70th century in his international career. Only 31 years old.
23rd December 2019 day. Virat Kohli scored a century in the Kolkata Test against Bangladesh. It was his 70th century in his international career. Only 31 years old. At that time, everyone who was interested in cricket agreed that Virat would surpass Sachin Tendulkar in particular, who scored the most centuries. Sachin played cricket till the age of 40 and scored 100 centuries. However, an unexpected situation started when it came to Virat’s centuries. Virat’s bat, who scored a century every third-fourth match, started to become silent. Centuries stopped coming. Kohli’s century drought lasted for almost 3 years. Around this time, Virat’s fans and experts started advising him to retire.
Finally, Virat’s drought of centuries came to an end during the Asia Cup in September last year. Virat scored a century in the T20 match against Afghanistan. He has now crossed the 100 mark in three of the last four ODIs. Virat is back in form. With this, the debate about whether he can cross the 100-century mark has also started again.
Let’s see Sachin’s international centuries first..
If we look at the career of Sachin Tendulkar, the star player of Team India, he scored 51 centuries in 329 innings in 200 Tests. He also scored 49 centuries in 452 innings in 463 ODIs. Played only 1 match in T20 career. In this he was dismissed for less runs. With this, he got the mark of 100 centuries in total, but he could not cross the mark of 50 centuries in ODIs.
How long can Virat play..
So far, Virat Kohli has not given any indication that he is planning to retire from cricket. That means, it seems that he will continue to play. But how long will it last? In terms of fitness, he is in better shape than most of the young stars in Team India. No one can retire him until he decides to retire on his own.
Sachin Tendulkar played for India till the age of 40. Rahul Dravid played till 39 years. Mahendra Singh Dhoni remained a part of Team India for 38 years. If Virat also walks in the path of these legends, Virat will play for 4 to 5 years.
Now the next question is whether he can score another 26 centuries if he plays for another 4 to 5 years. Currently, Virat has 74 centuries to his name.
Considering Virat’s five-year form, he averages 7.33 innings per century across all three formats of cricket. Against this background he needed 190 innings for 26 centuries. He averaged 34 innings each year during his 16-year career. Accordingly, for 190 innings he would have to play for about five and a half years. He is expected to play for another five years. But if he gets his five-year form again, he can complete hundreds of centuries in the next three years.
Virat scored 22 centuries in 99 innings in 2017 and 2018. 1 century every 4.5 innings. If he starts scoring centuries again at this speed, he is sure to score another 26 centuries in about 117 innings. He can reach this record in the next three years i.e. by the year 2026. The way Virat has been batting recently, everyone thinks he is returning to his 2017-2018 form.
Fitness with form..
Whether or not Virat crosses the 100-century mark depends on his form, fitness and how long he takes a break. Virat has been taking a break for the past few years. Since January 1, 2020, India has played 137 international matches. Virat played only 86 places in this. He missed 51 matches.
If Virat misses so many matches, it will be difficult to reach 100 centuries. Talking about T20 matches, he scored only 1 century in 107 innings.
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