New Delhi, Sept. 28 -- Virat Kohli reached 15,000 ODI runs in 74 fewer innings compared to the peerless Sachin Tendulkar but does this mean that he has well and truly surpassed the 'Mumbai Master' in the format?
The answer may not be as simple as the statistics suggest because the 50-over game that Tendulkar played for over two decades was
very different in its rules and texture.
Kohli and Tendulkar are both geniuses, both are unique for the times that they ruled and hence not comparable by mere number-crunching.
But is Kohli a bigger phenomenon than Tendulkar in ODIs? In some cases yes but such a comparison can never be linear.
But both of them have a couple of landmarks to their credit, which are unlikely to be touched by anyone else in near future.
Kohli's number of hundreds, which is 55 and still counting, and Tendulkar's quantum of runs, 18,426. Kohli has 15080 runs to his credit in the format and it is virtually impossible for him to surpass Tendulkar given the dwindling ODI count in the calendar.
In terms of innings played -- Kohli had reached 15,000 ODI runs in his 303rd
innings (315th match) while Tendulkar had reached the same milestone in 377 innings (387 matches).
Even more striking is that Kohli took 1578 lesser deliveries than Tendulkar to hit the mark.
Tendulkar faced 17,528 balls to reach 15,000 runs while for Kohli the volume of deliveries faced to achieve the same milestone was 15,950 balls.
Kohli played at least nine per cent fewer balls which indicates that he scored the runs at a faster clip than the 'Master Blaster'.
Kohli's average runs per innings compared to Tendulkar's is also significantly more.
Kohli's runs-per-innings figure stands at 49.5 compared to Tendulkar's 39.9.
The batting average (when unbeaten knocks are computed) is 58.8 for Kohli compared to Tendulkar's 44.24 which was considered to be brilliant for his peak era -- between 1995-2011.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.