3 reasons why Virat Kohli could be the last Indian to play 300 ODIs

Virat Kohli is set to achieve a massive milestone when India play New Zealand in their 2025 Champions Trophy Group A clash on Sunday, March 2, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. He is set to play the 300th ODI match of his international career.

Kohli will become only the seventh Indian to play 300 ODI games, joining an elite list of greats such as Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, and Mohamamd Azharuddin.

So far, Virat Kohli has played 299 ODIs and has amassed 14,085 runs at an average of 58.20 with 51 hundreds and 73 half-centuries to his name. However, he could probably be the last Indian player to play 300 ODIs, and here are three reasons why.

---

3 reasons why Virat Kohli could be the last Indian to play 300 ODIs

#3 Lesser number of ODIs

There has been significant shift from the one-day format in recent times. Teams are also looking to play more Test cricket to revive the purest format of the game. Looking at India's schedule post the 2025 Champions Trophy, the Men In Blue are set to play only 27 ODIs till the end of 2026 as compared to 39 T20Is.

Overall, in the 2023-2027 ICC FTP cycle, India will play a total of 38 Tests, 42 ODIs, and 61 T20Is. These numbers reflect the lesser number of ODIs to be played by the Indian team and the number is not expected to increase further keeping several factors such as commercial aspect of the game in mind.

Therefore, Virat Kohli could be among the last Indian players to hit 300 ODIs with a decrease in number of games in the format.

---

#2 Workload management

With emphasis on players wanting to play all three formats and remain consistent as well, any all-format player could play more Tests and T20Is given the number of games happening in each format.

Test cricket is expected to remain a priority for the existing as well as upcoming players. With the Indian Premier League (IPL) and regular T20 World Cups happening, players could also end up playing more T20 matches.

There are three T20 World Cups lined up from 2026 to 2030 as compared to two ODI World Cups in 2027 and 2031. To manage workload and be able to play all formats, the one-day format could well become the scapegoat.

---

#1 Only Rohit Sharma is close to Virat Kohli in number of ODI games played

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli after the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 match against Pakistan - Source: Getty

While it can be argued that India's ODI captain Rohit Sharma can also join Virat Kohli to reach 300 ODIs, Rohit may not be able to prolong his career to play another ODI World Cup.

The right-hander has played 270 ODIs and is the closest to Virat Kohli from the current set of players in terms of reaching 300 games in the format. However, Rohit is already close to 38 years of age and may not carry on until the next one-day World Cup.

Moreover, with just 27 more ODIs after the Champions Trophy, keeping the 2027 World Cup in mind, India may certainly look to try out different players for the future, which also means that Rohit may not feature in all 27 ODIs.