India batter Virat Kohli is back to his century hitting form in 2023 and is on the verge of breaking cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar’s record of scoring most ODI century. Sitting on 47 ODI hundreds, Kohli needs two more to come at par with the Master Blaster, who has 49 tons in ODIs.
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The former Indian skipper started the World Cup campaign on a high note with a match winning 85-run knock in IND vs AUS. The 34-year-old will now return to his home ground, Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, for IND vs AFG on Wednesday, October 11.
The 34-year-old is expected to reach his 48th ton on his home ground on Wednesday. If not, the ongoing ODI World Cup will provide Virat with enough opportunities to break Sachin’s record.
Ricky Ponting backs Virat Kohli to break Sachin’s record
Meanwhile, former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has backed Virat Kohli to beat Sachin Tendulkar’s ODI record of scoring most centuries in the World Cup.
“I think he will. I think he’ll definitely get two hundreds, whether he gets the three is another thing”, Ricky Ponting said on the ICC review podcast.
“But the venues, the wickets and the grounds in India are just so conducive to scoring, making big runs. Who knows with him, it’s probably his last World Cup as well”, the World Cup winning skipper added.
“If he gets that mindset, and we saw that he’s in pretty good touch, and we know with him he’s always hungry. He’s a winner, he wants success for himself and for his team. There is every chance at the end of this World Cup he could be equal with, if not breaking Sachin’s record, which is remarkable within itself,” Ponting said.
Notably, Kohli has already scored two ODI centuries in 2023 and there are at least eight more ODIs for India to play in the World Cup.
India Squad for Cricket World Cup 2023
Batters: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav
WKs: Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul (VC)
Seam all-rounders: Shardul Thakur
Spin all-rounders: Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin
Seamers: Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
Spinner: Kuldeep Yadav