September 28: Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 139 off 88 balls against West Indies in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday was his 55th ODI hundred and his 86th in international cricket. In the same innings he became only the second batter, after Sachin Tendulkar, to score 15,000 ODI runs. That leaves him 14 centuries short of Tendulkar’s 100, a record that once looked untouchable. So how do cricket’s two great Indian century-makers actually compare?
Key highlights
- Totals: Tendulkar has 100 international centuries (51 Test, 49 ODI). Kohli has 86 (30 Test, 55 ODI, 1 T20I).
- ODIs belong to Kohli: He passed Tendulkar’s 49 ODI hundreds in 2023 and now has 55, from far fewer innings.
- Tests belong to Tendulkar: 51 Test hundreds against Kohli’s 30. Kohli retired from Tests in May 2025.
- Kohli’s edge is the chase: By the time each had 49 ODI hundreds, 27 of Kohli’s had come while chasing, compared with 17 of Tendulkar’s.
- The road to 100: With only ODIs left, Kohli needs 14 more hundreds to equal Tendulkar and 15 to pass him.
The numbers at a glance
| Category | Tendulkar | Kohli |
|---|---|---|
| International centuries | 100 | 86 |
| Test centuries | 51 (200 Tests) | 30 (123 Tests) |
| ODI centuries | 49 (452 innings) | 55 (303 innings) |
| T20I centuries | 0 (1 match) | 1 |
| Highest Test score | 248* | 254* |
| Highest ODI score | 200* | 183 |
| Innings to 15,000 ODI runs | 377 | 303 |
| Innings to 85 international centuries | 673 | 626 |
| Status | Retired in 2013 | Active in ODIs only |
Figures as of September 28, 2026. Innings comparisons are from Outlook India and India TV.
ODIs: where Kohli has already won
For more than a decade, Tendulkar’s 49 ODI hundreds looked like the safest record in the one-day game. Kohli equalled it with an unbeaten 101 against South Africa at Eden Gardens on his 35th birthday, November 5, 2023, and broke it ten days later with 117 against New Zealand in the World Cup semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium, with Tendulkar watching from the stands.
The gap in efficiency is striking. ESPNcricinfo’s comparison at the time showed Kohli had needed 277 innings for his 49 ODI hundreds, a century every 5.65 innings, while Tendulkar needed 451, one every 9.22. Kohli’s 55 have now come in 303 innings. He also reached 15,000 ODI runs in 303 innings, 74 fewer than Tendulkar, and faced about 1,600 fewer balls, according to Outlook India.
What really sets Kohli apart is chasing. At 49 hundreds each, 27 of Kohli’s had come in the second innings, 23 of them in wins. Tendulkar had 17 chasing centuries and 32 while batting first. Kohli also had more hundreds in winning causes (41 to 33), though ESPNcricinfo noted that this partly reflects India’s stronger results in his era.
Tests: where Tendulkar is far ahead
In the longest format there is no contest. Tendulkar scored 51 Test hundreds across 200 Tests between 1989 and 2013, still the most by any batter in Test cricket. Kohli made 30 in 123 Tests before retiring from the format in May 2025. His best, 254 not out against South Africa in Pune in 2019, is higher than Tendulkar’s best of 248 not out, but Tendulkar’s sheer volume and 24-year longevity in whites are what built the 100.
T20Is: a small edge for Kohli
Tendulkar played just one T20 international, in 2006. Kohli played 125 before retiring from the format after India’s 2024 T20 World Cup win, and made one hundred: 122 not out against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup in Dubai in September 2022.
Different eras, different challenges
Any comparison has to account for context. Tendulkar debuted at 16 and scored his first international hundred as a 17-year-old at Old Trafford in 1990. He played much of his career against bowling attacks widely regarded as among the finest in the game’s history, and often as the lone star of a weaker Indian batting line-up. ESPNcricinfo counted 32 of his first 49 ODI hundreds in innings where no other batter reached a century, against 22 for Kohli.
Kohli’s generation has had its own pressures: a far heavier schedule across three formats and the IPL, and the burden of captaincy for several years. Its ODI playing conditions, including two new balls and fielding restrictions, are generally seen as friendlier to batters. At the 49-century mark, all of Kohli’s ODI hundreds had come against the top nine full-member teams, while Tendulkar’s included five against associate nations.
There is also a neat link between the two careers. Tendulkar’s 100th international hundred came against Bangladesh in the 2012 Asia Cup in Mirpur. Two days later, in Tendulkar’s final ODI, against Pakistan at the same ground, Kohli made 183, still his highest ODI score.
Can Kohli reach 100?
Kohli is 37, and ODIs are now his only international format. Yahoo Sports counts 14 ODIs on India’s schedule before the 2027 World Cup. Even at his career rate of a hundred roughly every five and a half innings, 14 more would take about 75 to 80 innings, several years of cricket at India’s current ODI workload. Equalling Tendulkar looks unlikely unless Kohli plays well beyond the 2027 World Cup, though he has already beaten records that were once thought safe.
Kohli himself has little time for the debate. Speaking to Star Sports after Sunday’s hundred, he said, “For me, Sachin paaji is always going to be Sachin paaji,” and added that Tendulkar “revolutionised the game in his time. And that for me is way beyond numbers and comparisons,” as reported by CricTracker.
The verdict
The numbers point to a split decision. Tendulkar’s 100 international hundreds, 51 of them in Tests, remain the benchmark for longevity and all-format greatness. Kohli is statistically the finest ODI batter India has produced: faster to every milestone, deadlier in a chase, and already clear of Tendulkar’s one-day century record. Whether he gets anywhere near 100 or not, Sunday’s innings showed that the chase is not over yet. For more on Kohli’s record-breaking form this year, read our report on his five records in the IPL 2026 opener.
Sources
- Outlook India: Virat Kohli destroys West Indies with blistering 74-ball century
- Outlook India: Kohli vs Tendulkar, journeys to 15,000 ODI runs
- CricTracker: Virat Kohli breaks silence on Sachin Tendulkar comparisons
- ESPNcricinfo: Kohli vs Tendulkar, a comparison of their 49 ODI hundreds
- India TV: Kohli vs Tendulkar after 85 international centuries
- Yahoo Sports: Can Virat Kohli still break Sachin Tendulkar’s 100 centuries record?
- Wikipedia: List of international cricket centuries by Virat Kohli
The Sports Desk covers cricket, the Asian Games and Indian and international sport. Stories are checked against at least two credible sources before publication.
