Is Virat Kohli better than Sachin Tendulkar? Here is a statistical overview

Virat Kohli’s consistency in ODIs is absolutely staggering. Such is his appetite for runs that he is on course to break plenty of records in the game. In the modern era, Kohli has been compared to other great players of his generation like Kane Williamson, Joe Root and Steve Smith. However, Kohli has put them all behind thanks to his run-making ability and he now has only one target to overhaul.

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Following his exploits in the Vizag ODI, Kohli broke Sachin Tendulkar, the designated God of Cricket’s record of the fastest to 10,000 runs. Looking at the way Kohli has accumulated the runs, it is only a matter of time before Tendulkar’s all-time record is broken. After the Vizag knock, there is a big debate on who is the greatest player of all time? Kohli or Tendulkar? Here are the stats for the argument.

Fewer number of innings

Consider the 10,000-run milestone. While Tendulkar took 259 innings to reach the landmark, Kohli achieved it in just 205 innings, which is 54 quicker than the Master Blaster. However, it must be pointed out that Tendulkar started his career in the middle order and only much later was he promoted to open the innings. On the other hand, Kohli has played at No.3 for most of his career.

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What tips the scale in Kohli’s favour is his consistency. The volume of runs that he scores every year only increase which makes his overall record look fabulous. In the 10,000-run club, the greatness of Kohli with respect to other batsmen, Kohli averages a staggering 59 with 37 centuries in 213 games, which is a century in every five games.

Golden 2018

If one has a glance at his figures in 2018, Kohli took just 11 innings to go from 9000 to 10,000 runs. He averages close to 150 and has a strike-rate of over 100. Freakish numbers indeed! With five centuries and three fifties, Kohli’s appetite for centuries is gigantic. Consider this statistic: In three years, Kohli has amassed 27 international centuries.

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With the way Kohli is performing, Tendulkar’s mark of 49 ODI centuries, the most by a cricketer is under a huge threat. His remarkable rate of scoring could result in him overhauling several huge names in the next couple of years.

Better with captaincy

In cricket, it has often been pointed out that the added burden of captaincy results in a dip in form when it comes to batting. Not with Kohli. In 54 ODIs as skipper, he has scored 3356 runs at a monstrous average of 88 with 15 centuries. Thus, Kohli has only gotten better with captaincy, which was unfortunately not the case with Tendulkar.

Kohli’s remarkable consistency makes him an unstoppable force. It will only take a miracle to slow him down.