CHENNAI: Greatness is often measured in numbers. Virat Kohli has enough of them to fill a career, with 15,000 ODI runs, 55 hundreds and counting.
But numbers alone don't explain why he belongs among the greats. It is perhaps what happens when the game changes, and you change with it. Michael Jordan did it. Lionel Messi did it. Sachin Tendulkar did it. And now, at 37, Kohli is doing it again.
After winning three consecutive championships, Jordan left the NBA. But when he returned, he ensured the NBA had not left him, winning three consecutive titles (1996-1998), elevating him to the pantheon of greatness.
It wasn’t Hamilton’s seven titles that made him great; it was his ability to keep pushing boundaries and sustaining success that made him a modern-day F1 great. Sachin Tendulkar’s first peak already makes an argument for greatness, but the fact that he braved the tennis elbow, with a second peak that culminated in a World Cup win, puts him one step above the others.
Messi had achieved what he wanted sans the World Cup, and at 35, it seemed that one would slip away from him; the Argentine put on a dazzling show, leading La Albiceleste to its third World Cup win. Now that brings us to Kohli.
15,000 ODI runs, 55 hundreds, the 37-year-old is the face of modern-day cricket. But that doesn’t make him great; what makes him one is how he consciously transformed his game to meet the changing demands of white-ball cricket.
At his first peak, Kohli’s numbers already shadowed the great Sachin’s consistency, with 11,125 runs across 120 innings, averaging a staggering 60.79, with 42 tons and 52 half-centuries.
Through that generation of Indian cricket, none, including Rohit Sharma (7,691 runs), came close to the crazy consistency Kohli brought to the table. His 6,625 runs while chasing gave a completely different definition to ‘Chase Master’.
If Kohli’s career ended then, he’d still have been one of the greatest cricketers of modern-day cricket. But what truly sets him apart is what he stands for today: adaptability and driving his game forward to meet the modern-day demands of white-ball cricket.
Across 2020-22 in ODIs, Kohli scored just 802 runs across 23 ODI innings, averaging 34.8, striking at 88.63. Everything he was known for- finesse, consistency, aggression, mastery in chasing all seemed to be fading away, with a World Cup around the corner.
But what transpired after shows why Kohli is the beating heart of ODI cricket. The right-hander finished the 2023 ODI World Cup with 765 runs across 11 games, even surpassing the legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of most tons for the country in the 50-over format.
"I got a challenge at this stage of my career to kind of up the ante and, you know, play a gear to higher end," Kohli told the broadcasters after the first ODI against West Indies.Indian batsmen Virat Kohli
Now, with another World Cup around the corner, Kohli has unlocked a beast version of himself. The 37-year-old is playing a brand of cricket that’s edge-of-the-seat, while still carrying the finesse and class he’s known for, and still chasing targets despite achieving greatness.
"Yeah, that was exciting for me to work on. Again, it excites you when you have to unlock a new version at this stage of your career, which will eventually help, you know, anything that you play for, be it playing for India or in the IPL. It's really helped me a lot to play with a free mind, and I think that's what's working for me,” he added.
"I promised myself I'm going to play positively because I can," Kohli said. "So I'm going to continue to play like that, but, you know, not be reckless. There is a fine line, which as a professional, as an experienced player, I should have the ability to execute in this way without, you know, playing reckless shots and get the team through."
In the first ODI against West Indies, Kohli showed a completely different version of himself: aggressive, proactive and still minimising unwanted risks. He hit a six within five balls of his stay at the crease, and there never seemed to be an end, with nine sixes on the night – the most for him – as he scaled 15,000 ODI runs.
Across seven ODI games in the year, the 37-year-old has already shown a 2.0 version of himself: leaner, meaner and quicker. In 2026, Kohli has scored 523 runs at an average of 87.16, with a strike rate of 116.74.
If you were wondering, yes, it is the best strike rate for any ODI batter (min 300 runs) in the year, and only three batters have more sixes than him.
Kohli might even end up without an ODI World Cup title, but his legacy as an ODI batter? That’s already testified to in the 50-over cricket Hall of Fame.
The riveting argument now is: which of his two peaks is better?