Top 5 reasons why Virat Kohli isn't ‘The Next Sachin Tendulkar’

Recently on 31^st July 2012, Virat Kohli became the fastest batsman to smash 13 ODI centuries, requiring only 86 ODIs to achieve this feat. The second on this list is AB de Villiers, who is way behind with 121 ODIs to do the same. And our Little Master Sachin Tendulkar had surprisingly taken 185 ODIs to score 13 ODI tons. After his last record smashing ODI hundred, Virat’s comparision with Sachin followed naturally, with some experts and journalists even terming him ‘the next Sachin Tendulkar’.

The young lad has obviously out-performed everyone’s expectations, perhaps even his own, but isn’t it too early to compare him with the legendary Tendulkar? Let us take a look at some arguments regarding this fastest 13 centuries record -

1. Ever since his first match,Virat has been playing at No. 3 position, which allows him to bat almost always, giving him enough time to settle in, get a good start and then make those huge scores. In Sachin’s case, he initially batted at No. 5/6/7 (mostly 5). Many times he didn’t have a chance to bat and even when he did, due to lack of overs remaining, he had to play the power-hitter role, lower down the innings and hence couldn’t smash any tons. Five years after his debut, only when he started playing as an opener in the New Zealand tour of 1994, he scored his first ODI 100 in his 79^th match. It was then when he really started performing to his abilities, setting new milestones straightaway.

2. Kohli, who relishes playing against the Lankan Lions (scoring 5 out of 13 tons against them), has been lucky enough that nowadays India seems to be playing against them more frequently than ever before. Since February 2008, the two sides have clashed in 44 ODIs and out of Kohli’s 90 odd appearances so far, 30 have come against the Lankans.

3. Tendulkar’s most 100’s have come against Australia (9 out of 49, almost 18%), the most dominant team of his era. But never did India play as frequently against the Aussies as they are playing against the islanders today.

4. Today,Virat enjoys great support from a formidable Indian batting line-up with matured players like Gambhir, Sehwag, Dhoni, Tendulkar himself, and talented ones like Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina.

5. However, when Sachin was at his sublime best in late 90s, the likes of Azaruddin, Jadeja and Robin Singh were fading and the Gangulys and Dravids were still settling in. The repetitive failure of the the Indian batting line-up against quality oppositions put a lot of pressure on the young Sachin and most of the times, he looked like the lone warrior willing to fight.

I don’t want to take any credit away from the promising Kohli, and I hope with competition from Sharma and Raina and the added responsibility of vice-captaincy, he will improve even more as a player. But I think it is too early to compare him with ‘The God Of Cricket’. It will only be possible if he continues his current form for many more years, so that he can get to the level where Sachin has been for years.