Virat Kohli To Better Sachin Tendulkar's Legendary ODI Record In World Cup 2023, Believes Ricky Ponting

Virat Kohli, who has been hitting the ball really well lately, will be essential to the Men in Blue's attempt to snap their arduous and depressing streak of not winning an ICC trophy this year.

at India's opening match of the ODI World Cup 2023 at Chennai, Virat Kohli scored an incredible 85 runs to lead his team to a six-wicket victory over Australia.

The team was saved from early difficulties by the former Indian captain, who set up an incredible 165-run partnership for the fourth wicket with wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul.

With 8.4 overs remaining, India managed to win despite the top order failing. Kohli and Rahul both played well but were short of their individual hundreds.

Ricky Ponting, the former captain of Australia, has encouraged Virat, who is on course to achieve many milestones, to break Sachin Tendulkar's record for the most hundreds in one-day international cricket (ODIs) during the current domestic competition.

In 282 one-day internationals, Kohli has amassed 47 hundreds to far, falling two short of Tendulkar's all-time record.

In addition to finishing with 49 tonnes of runs scored in 463 One-Day Internationals, the famous batsman Tendulkar also concluded with the highest run total (18,426) in the 50-over game.

Before being removed for 85 runs, Kohli led India to an incredible victory over the Australians and came dangerously near to achieving the feat.

Ponting believes that Kohli will break the record in the tournament's home country, even though the Men in Blue still have eight games left in the major competition.

"I believe he will. The Australian great Ponting stated, "I think he'll definitely get two hundreds; whether he gets the three is another thing," during the most recent episode of The ICC Review podcast.

"However, Indian grounds, wickets, and venues are just incredibly favourable for scoring and making big runs."

Who knows, this World Cup may be his final one as well.

If he adopts that perspective—we've noticed that he's in quite good touch—we know that he's constantly ravenous. Being a winner, he aspires to both individual and team achievement.

"He has a good chance of finishing this World Cup on par with Sachin's record, if not better, which is incredible in and of itself."

In the ODI World Cups, the right-handed batter has amassed two centuries, including a century and a half against Bangladesh in 2011.

December 2009 saw Kohli's first-ever century in one-day internationals, scoring 107 runs against Sri Lanka.

Before smashing four in the last 15 innings, the 34-year-old suffered through a protracted period of malnourishment. Between August 2019 and December 2022, he had not struck an ODI century.

"It's incredible that there are 49 one-day international hundreds. But he works hard, so he deserves that," Ponting remarked.

"Even in game one, when you watch him in the field, he just seems very fit and ready for the battle every time the ball is hit, whether it be in the field or with these hitting hands. Thus, I would never discard him," he continued.