Virat Kohli’s former teammate Ravichandran Ashwin made a massive statement on the star batter’s future amid the ODI series against the West Indies. India are playing a three-match series against the Caribbean side at home and won the first game by eight wickets.
Ahead of the series, Virat Kohli stated that the 2027 World Cup would be his last ICC tournament for India. In the first ODI, he smashed an unbeaten 139 and recorded his 86th international hundred. Ashwin remarked that Kohli should stick to his words and not think of playing beyond the World Cup to chase Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 100 international hundreds.
However, he reckoned that it would be a remarkable achievement if Kohli could get to the milestone by the end of the 2027 World Cup.
“As a well-wisher, I really want that he hangs up his boots, as he has committed that the 2027 World Cup is his last and his chances of playing are low after that. I am not surprised at all. Keeping this fitness and batting form takes a lot of effort, and I am sure that, behind closed doors, he is doing a lot of work. Maybe he doesn’t want to do it. Even if he wants to play after the World Cup, it does not make any practical sense. Logically, it is possible. But if he really does this, I will take my hat out and it will be a remarkable achievement. If he can do it, I will say both he and Sachin are on the same level without a shadow of a doubt,” he said on ‘Ash ki Baat‘.
Talking about the comparison between Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar, Ashwin opined that there should be no comparison at all. While he reckoned that Kohli would be a great No.3 batter irrespective of the era he played in, he picked Tendulkar and dismissed the comparison.
“I will stick my neck out and say this comparison is wrong on many quadrants. When Virat has played, the rules and situations have changed. When Sachin was playing white-ball for India, the ball was different. For me, the comparison will always be wrong, no matter how many stats or records you keep in front of me. The comparison should not happen at all. I will always pick Sachin. It is not Kohli’s fault. If Kohli had played at No.3 in any generation for India, he would have been a champion player, I have no doubts. To compare people of two generations is absolutely sinister.”
Virat Kohli became only the second Indian batter to reach 15000 ODI runs after Tendulkar. Moreover, he also broke Tendulkar’s record and became the fastest batter to do so, achieving the milestone in 303 innings.
Ravichandran Ashwin on Virat Kohli’s new version
Given the way Virat Kohli batted in the first ODI, smashing nine sixes, he showed a new version of himself. However, Ravichandran Ashwin reckoned that Kohli has nothing more to prove or achieve and hence, is trying out new things as motivation to go to practice.
“Imagine you are Kohli. You have achieved so much. You stay in London now. World Cup is the destination you want to go to. He has nothing to achieve. If he has to go to practice, there are only two things: to keep up his benchmark and to try something new. You cannot practice without that. This is nothing new for him. You can learn from him that if you do not try new things, you will lose what you have as well,” he said.
He also praised Kohli for one cut shot that he played against Gudakesh Motie and opined that he had never seen him playing the shot better than that.
“Virat showed one thing that even his biggest fans would not have noticed. He played a cut shot against Motie. It went tight between point and third man. Even the players who play the finest cuts would have paused for a minute and watched it. He has never played that shot that well. It was not that short a ball, either, and was quick.”
Virat Kohli has been in scintillating form, scoring 899 runs in last 11 ODI innings, including four hundreds and five half-centuries.
Edited by Rishab Vm