Virat Kohli averages better than Brian Lara in a chase, quicker than Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting

In One-Day Internationals, it seems, Virat Kohli will only be restricted by his own limits of imagination and ambition.

Virat Kohli has the most runs (8,888), best average (55.55) and most hundreds (31) than any other batsman after 200 ODIs. With 31 tons, he has gone past Ricky Ponting; only Tendulkar’s 49 remains to be caught up. In One-Day Internationals, it seems, he will only be restricted by his own limits of imagination and ambition.

Here is a look at some of the highlights of his career.

Better average overseas than Tendulkar

Tendulkar was the lodestar of Indian cricket for decades but even he averaged only 37.24 in the ODIs overseas, considerably less than his overall average of 44.83. Kohli averages 47.29 overseas,(55.55 overall), and has 18 hundreds away from home. Tendulkar had 29 though.

The hunter

It’s well known that he is the best chaser in ODIs but it’s worth stressing again how good he is. In 113 matches, he averages 65.73 with 19 hundreds and 27 fifties. And consider this astonishing stat: an average 5.94 innings per hundred in chases. Tendulkar had 17 of his 49 hundreds while batting second; Kohli has 19 out of 31 in chases.

– Kohli has 17 hundreds in successful chases, the most by any batsman. Tendulkar comes second with 14 centuries in chases when India won.

95.11 Kohli’s average in successful chases — the most for any batsman who has tallied 3,000 runs or more. Brian Lara comes second with an average of 68.58.Only Ponting has tallied more runs than Kohli in successful chases but with 4,186 runs, Ponting has just one run more than Kohli.

1,000-plus runs and four or more tons
Kohli is the 5th batsman to score 1,000-plus runs in a year five or more times. Tendulkar has done it 7 times while Ganguly, Sangakkara and Ponting have done it 6 times. However, in those seasons he has tallied 1000-plus, Kohli is the only batsman to score four or more hundreds each time. He is the second batsman after AB de Villiers to score consecutive hundreds 5 or more times.

Tendulkar and Ponting Vs Kohli

After 200 matches, Tendulkar, who was a slow starter in ODIs, needing 76 matches for his first century, had 7,305 runs. Kohli has 8,888. Sachin averaged 41.97 to Kohli’s 55.55. Ponting needed 349 innings to score his 30th hundred; Kohli got there in his 186th innings. Kohli has improved steadily. He averaged 45.67 in his first 50 games, 51.81 in the second, 57.83 in the third and 68.10 in the last 50.

Non-opener with high conversion rate

Only Hashim Amla and David Warner, both openers, have a better conversion – the fifties to hundreds – than Kohli’s 40.78%. He has converted 31 of his 76 scores of 50 or more into hundreds.

Will age slow him down?

The good news is that he is just 29 but there is another trend from cricket history that should please Virat Kohli fans. Among the top 10 run-scorers in ODIs, only Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis had a small dip in their averages in the second half of their careers – after 200 ODIs. Everybody else ratcheted up more hundreds and more runs in the second half – Kumar Sangakkara, for example, hit 19 of his 25 hundreds after 200 ODIs.