Virat Kohli Overtakes Sachin Tendulkar To Break This ODI Record In Champions Trophy 2025

For the Indian fans, February 23 was a sweet day in the Champions Trophy 2025, not only because of the victory over Pakistan but also because Virat Kohli celebrated his 51st century in the 50-over format. The right-handed batter was into a struggling period across formats in the last few months.

Kohli was the leading run-getter of the 2023 ODI World Cup with 765 runs in 11 innings at an average of 95.62 and a strike rate of 90.31, shouldering on six half-centuries and three centuries at the best score of 117. But he struggled as Sri Lanka’s spinner in the three ODIs last year and failed to convert the fifty against England in the recent home series.

Virat Kohli breaks Sachin Tendulkar’s record of fastest 14000 ODI runs

One of the biggest anticipations of the chase was Virat Kohli breaking the record of Sachin Tendulkar’s fastest 14000 ODI runs. He failed to reach the landmark during the previous knock against Bangladesh a couple of days ago but didn’t miss the chance this time around.

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With a beautiful cover drive, he claimed the milestone in just 287 innings in Dubai. The next best of the list, Tendulkar, achieved the feat in 63 more innings, while Kumar Sangakkara took overall 378 innings. The last 1000 ODI runs for Virat Kohli have come in 20 innings, which is better than his previous rate of 25 innings.

The Delhi-born is currently averaging over 56 in the format, while Tendulkar (44.19) and Sangakkara (41.73) were in their early 40s when they got the milestone. In terms of deliveries, he is also the fastest in 14984 balls, much quicker than the other two subcontinent batters.

Since Kohli went past the 8000 ODI runs in 175 innings in June 2017, he has crossed every single record in the list. Currently, he sits at the third position of most runs in the ODIs with 14085, nearly 200 runs less than Sangakkara, who played 93 innings more than Kohli.

Anil Kumble lauds Virat Kohli’s clear mindset in shot selections vs Pakistan

On Thursday (February 20), Virat Kohli’s 22-run knock in 38 deliveries was a bit scratchy, as he couldn’t time as many deliveries as he would have loved to. But that was not the case against Pakistan, as India’s former leg-spinner, Anil Kumble, has praised the veteran’s clear mindset in shot selections.

“The difference that I saw, at least, from his innings against Bangladesh to this, of course, the pitch was slightly better, but even when he sort of blocked against Bangladesh a couple of dot balls, he was sort of shadowing that again after that, but today we didn't see any of that.” Kumble expressed on ESPNcricinfo’s Match Day.

“Virat Kohli was just back to the way he bats, and that says that the mind space was at ease and, of course, the challenge of playing Pakistan and the crowd, I'm sure sort of helps him lift his game and today we saw him in sublime form.” India’s leading wicket-taker in international cricket added.

Ex-India captain impressed with Virat Kohli’s century construction

The former Indian captain feels that Kohli has made it a habit to score runs under the pressure and expectations of the fans, which can be massive on an individual.

“Every time Virat goes there, the expectations are high, not just for himself, but from the team's perspective as well, that he's going to get those runs for India, whether India bats first or chases down a target. And the fans' expectations, you know, it's massive.” The former Indian head coach claimed.

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“When that happens consistently, it starts to get to you, and then you're trying too hard to get out of that and try to be your normal batting self, and today I thought we saw that in Virat. The way he constructed that hundred was incredible. We've seen that many, many times in his 51 hundred in ODI cricket.” Anil Kumble concluded.

At 36, Virat Kohli’s fitness of fielding for 50 overs in the Dubai heat and then chasing the score, batting for 40-odd overs, is spectacular.