For 80 odd international innings, stretched across 1028 days, Virat Kohli struggled for a century. However, since breaking free from the shackles in September last year, Kohli, in just 22 innings, has scored four international tons, three of which were in ODIs in just four matches. Kohli is very much back and alive and has once again reignited the discussion of when, and not whether, will he be able to break Sachin Tendulkar's ODI century record. And former India captain Sunil Gavaskar made a bold ‘IPL’ statement in making the big prediction.
On Sunday, in the third and final ODI match of the series against Sri Lanka, Kohli scored his 46th ODI century en route to his match-winning knock of an unbeaten 166 which helped India win by a colossal margin of 317 runs to script a whitewash.
When Kohli was stuck on 43 ODI tons between August 2019 and November 2022, the discussion of ‘when’ had transformed to ‘whether’ he would be able to make it past Sachin's record of 49 tons in the format. But with Kohli resuming his duty of scoring hundreds at will, and clobbering three tons in just four innings, Gavaskar, in conversation with Sports Tak, predicted that it could well happen before the start of the impending IPL season.
Gavaskar pointed to the fact that India play three ODIs against New Zealand and then against Australia before IPL and given the form Kohli is in, the former India captain might just find himself at the top of the elite ODI chart.
{{/usCountry}}Gavaskar pointed to the fact that India play three ODIs against New Zealand and then against Australia before IPL and given the form Kohli is in, the former India captain might just find himself at the top of the elite ODI chart.
{{/usCountry}}“The form that he is in, the way that he is playing right now...now we have three matches against New Zealand and three more against Australia. So we have six ODIs before IPL. And all he needs his three centuries. The way he is batting right now, why shouldn't we feel that those three hundreds happen before the IPL,” he said.
The New Zealand series begins from January 18 onwards.