Virat Kohli Centuries: Is he the king of Three Figure Mark?

Indian captain Virat Kohli is undoubtedly a giant of modern-day cricket. For over a decade now, Kohli has been continuously adapting and improving making the life of bowlers across the world miserable in the process. The batting legend has scored 22,286 runs in international cricket thus far. Kohli is only the third Indian batsman after Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid to score over 20,000 runs in the international arena.

Kohli is often lauded for his temperament and the numbers prove his might with the bat. The Delhi batsman has a remarkable conversion rate of almost 50% across formats. And that explains why Kohli boasts of 70 hundreds in international cricket, only third behind greats of the game Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting. The fact that it took Virat Kohli only 468 innings to notch up 70 tons proves why he is hailed as one of the best the game has ever seen.

Kohli broke into the Indian team on the back of an impressive campaign in the 2008 U19 World Cup where he led the side to the title. Following a great start, the modern-day great saw a huge dip in his career following the 2011 World Cup as he vied to balance his game across formats. Kohli bounced back in style as he worked hard on his technique. Even as he struggled during the early 2010s, the centuries kept coming time and again as he worked his way through the slump.

It’s only after Virat Kohli crossed 7,000 runs in ODIs, which took him 161 innings, that he began to take off. It has taken him only 81 innings to reel off the subsequent 5000+ runs to get to 12,000 runs, which is another record in this format. Kohli pipped Hashim Amla by one innings to become the fastest to 8,000 runs. He was also the fastest to 9,000 runs, 10,000, 11,000 and 12,000 runs.

How many centuries has Virat Kohli completed?

Virat Kohli has a total of 70 centuries to his name of which 43 have come in ODIs and 27 in Tests.

Virat Kohli’s ODI centuries

No.	Score	Opposition	Venue	Date
1	107	Sri Lanka	Eden Gardens, Kolkata	24 December 2009
2	102*	Bangladesh	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka	11 January 2010
3	118	Australia	APCA-VDCA Stadium, Visakhapatnam	20 October 2010
4	105	New Zealand	Nehru Stadium, Guwahati	28 November 2010
5	100*	Bangladesh	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka	19 February 2011
6	107	England	Sophia Gardens, Cardiff	16 September 2011
7	112*	England	Feroz Shah Kotla Ground, Delhi	17 October 2011
8	117	West Indies	APCA-VDCA Stadium, Visakhapatnam	2 December 2011
9	133*	Sri Lanka	Bellerive Oval, Hobart	28 February 2012
10	108	Sri Lanka	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka	13 March 2012
11	183	Pakistan	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka	18 March 2012
12	106	Sri Lanka	MRIC Stadium, Hambantota	21 July 2012
13	128*	Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo	31 July 2012
14	102	West Indies	Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain	5 July 2013
15	115	Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club, Harare	24 July 2013
16	100*	Australia	Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur	16 October 2013
17	115*	Australia	VCA Stadium, Nagpur	30 October 2013
18	123	New Zealand	McLean Park, Napier	19 January 2014
19	136	Bangladesh	Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium, Fatullah	26 February 2014
20	127	West Indies	HPCA Stadium, Dharamshala	17 October 2014
21	139*	Sri Lanka	JSCA International Stadium, Ranchi	16 November 2014
22	107	Pakistan	Adelaide Oval, Adelaide	15 February 2015
23	138	South Africa	M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai	22 October 2015
24	117	Australia	Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne	17 January 2016
25	106	Australia	Manuka Oval, Canberra	20 January 2016
26	154*	New Zealand	Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali	23 October 2016
27	122	England	Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune	15 January 2017
28	111*	West Indies	Sabina Park, Kingston	6 July 2017
29	131	Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo	31 August 2017
30	110*	Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo	3 September 2017
31	121	New Zealand	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai	22 October 2017
32	113	New Zealand	Green Park Stadium, Kanpur	29 October 2017
33	112	South Africa	Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban	1 February 2018
34	160*	South Africa	Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town	7 February 2018
35	129*	South Africa	SuperSport Park, Centurion	16 February 2018
36	140	West Indies	ACA Stadium, Guwahati	21 October 2018
37	157*	West Indies	ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam	24 October 2018
38	107	West Indies	Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune	27 October 2018
39	104	Australia	Adelaide Oval, Adelaide	15 January 2019
40	116	Australia	Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur	5 March 2019
41	123	Australia	JSCA International Stadium, Ranchi	8 March 2019
42	120	West Indies	Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain	11 August 2019
43	114*	West Indies	Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain	14 August 2

Virat Kohli’s Test centuries

No.	Score	Opposition	Venue	Date
1	116	Australia	Adelaide Oval, Adelaide	24 January 2012
2	103	New Zealand	M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore	31 August 2012
3	103	England	Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur	13 December 2012
4	107	Australia	M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai	22 February 2013
5	119	South Africa	Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg	18 December 2013
6	105*	New Zealand	Basin Reserve, Wellington	14 February 2014
7	115	Australia	Adelaide Oval, Adelaide	9 December 2014
8	141	Australia	Adelaide Oval, Adelaide	9 December 2014
9	169	Australia	Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne	26 December 2014
10	147	Australia	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney	6 January 2015
11	103	Sri Lanka	Galle International Stadium, Galle	12 August 2015
12	200	West Indies	Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound	21 July 2016
13	211	New Zealand	Holkar Stadium, Indore	8 October 2016
14	167	England	ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam	17 November 2016
15	235	England	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai	8 December 2016
16	204	Bangladesh	Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad	9 February 2017
17	103*	Sri Lanka	Galle International Stadium, Galle	26 July 2017
18	104*	Sri Lanka	Eden Gardens, Kolkata	16 November 2017
19	213	Sri Lanka	Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur	24 November 2017
20	243	Sri Lanka	Feroz Shah Kotla Ground, Delhi	2 December 2017
21	153	South Africa	SuperSport Park, Centurion	13 January 2018
22	149	England	Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham	1 August 2018
23	103	England	Trent Bridge, Nottingham	18 August 2018
24	139	West Indies	Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot	4 October 2018
25	123	Australia	Perth Stadium, Perth	14 December 2018
26	254*	South Africa	Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune	10 October 2019
27	136	Bangladesh	Eden Gardens, Kolkata	22 Novem

Can Virat Kohli Break Sachin Tendulkar’s Record?

When one talks of hundreds, they can keep Sachin Tendulkar out of the conversation. Sachin is the player with the highest number of international hundreds to his name. Ever since the maestro retired, there were speculations if any player will ever be able to break Sachin’s record of 100 tons. And the first name Sachin had in mind who could shatter the record is that of Virat Kohli.

While Kohli was starting out back then, trying to make a name for himself on the big stage, the chubby kid from Delhi is now the best in the business. With 70 tons to his name at the age of 32, Kohli is the closest and best equipped now than ever to break the illustrious record. With pitches now more in favour of the batsman and an added advantage of playing T20I, Kohli is certainly the prime contender to break the record.

If we compare the numbers, both the top order giants have almost identical in this stage of their careers. If Virat Kohli goes at the current rate, he would need another 110 innings to overtake the master batsman. Given his form and fitness, that would not be very difficult for the Indian skipper.

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The century drought continues

Unfortunately, it seems like Virat Kohli has hit a dry spot, not when it comes to piling up runs. But when it comes to hundreds, it has been over 500 hundred since Kohli breached the three-figure mark. It was in India’s maiden day-night Test where Kohli last hit a ton as he played a sterling knock of 136 runs against Bangladesh. Ever since the Delhi batsman has failed to get to the landmark despite crossing the 80s on multiple occasions.

Since that Test, the Indian captain has played 31 matches across formats, 13 T20Is, 12 ODIs and 6 Tests, and is yet to reach the elusive three-figure mark. In the total of 35 innings that he has batted in, Kohli has struck 12 fifties and averages 40.18 while scoring a total of 1286 runs. While there has been seemingly no drop in his run scoring, the centuries have dried up.

Since his debut in 2008, never had Kohli gone through a calendar year without a ton in international cricket. But aa pandemic saw cricket take a break and with only nine ODIs and three Tests to his name, for the first time since 2009, Kohli went centuryless in 2020. So far in 2021 too, the Indian skipper has faltered more than twice after crossing the 80 run mark.

But the occasion is just perfect for the 71st hundred as India gears up for the World Test Championship (WTC) final. As Virat Kohli is all set to lift his very first ICC trophy, he might very well grace the occasion with his 28th Test century to equal Ponting’s record of 71 international tons. The England tour which will follow will also have

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