Virat Kohli, one of the greatest cricketers to have ever played the game, is now in elite company, thanks to the correction of a glaring error made by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in their rankings update, released on January 14 (Wednesday).
The error of showing Kohli as the number one batter for only 825 days was corrected on the evening of January 15 (Thursday), changing the number of days of his stay atop ODI batting charts to 1547.
Correction puts Kohli in elite company
The correction made Kohli enter elite company. He now holds the record of spending the highest number of days at the top in the ODI batter’s ranking among Indian batters. Kohli also joined Sir Vivian Richards and Brian Lara in a rare list.
Richards (2306) and Lara (2079) are the only two other batters to have spent more than 1500 days, ranked the highest in the world in ODI batting rankings.
Kohli: The king of white-ball cricket
When it comes to active cricketers, Kohli has spent the most number of days at the top of the ranking charts across formats. In white-ball cricket, he has been especially brilliant, aggregating a total of 2567 days as the number one-ranked batter.
When it comes to spending most days at the helm of the T20I batting rankings, Kohli remains one of the only two players to aggregate more than 1000 days at the top. He was at the top of the charts for 1015 days in the shortest format. However, Babar Azam of Pakistan has spent most days at the top-1105.
Kohli, the run machine, is running, and that too at extra speed. He is the only batter in modern-day cricket (excluding Don Bradman because his rankings are retrospective) to rank alongside Richards to spend more than 3000 days at the helm of batting rankings.
For nearly 8 years of his playing career, Kohli has remained at the top of the batting rankings. To put this in context, only the likes of Ricky Ponting (2,500) and Lara (2,800) come close to him, and none of his contemporaries.
Chasing Lara and Tendulkar: Will Kohli be able to beat them both?
Kohli can breach the record of Lara to become only the second batter behind Richards to aggregate more than 2100 days at the top of the ODI batting charts. As of January 16, he needs to stay at the top for 532 days more to do it.
With the ODI World Cup in October-November 2027, the Indian batter has more days at his disposal than he thinks to overtake the West Indian great. But can the same be said about his chances of over-taking the Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar?
Kohli needs 3753 runs in 35-37 matches, assuming that he plays all the matches leading up to the World Cup and in the World Cup, also factoring in that India reach the final. To get nearly 100 runs in every game will be next to impossible for Kohli, but he can finish a close second for sure.