After the retirement of Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, it was assumed that the replacement of these great players would take a long time. But Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane have filled in their spaces very quickly.
In recent times, India have won most of their matches, especially one-day and Twenty20, due to their solid and long batting line-up.
Last week Kohli successfully made his debut as India’s full-time ODI captain against England and immediately slammed another century in a huge successful chase.
Former Indian captain Dhoni thinks that Kohli and his current team will win more matches than him in all the formats and that his team will rewrite history and become the most successful Indian team.
Kohli had already taken over the Test captaincy from Dhoni in January 2015. Since then India have won 14 out of their 21 matches. During the same period, India lost 15 One-day Internationals in 33 games under Dhoni.
In the first ODI against England in Pune, India chased 350 runs target. It was the sixth occasions when a target of 350 or more was chased.
India’s 356 for seven is the highest successful chase by any team against England in ODIs. India’s score is the fourth highest successful chase in the history of ODIs. The highest was 438 for 9 set by South Africa against Australia at Johannesburg on March 12, 2006.
India won while chasing 360 in Jaipur and 351 in Nagpur, both against Australia in the 2013-14 series.
Interestingly, in all three matches, Kohli made it possible for India with centuries.
Since Kohli’s debut, India have won eight ODIs while chasing 300-plus targets. Before Kohli’s first appearance, India had chased down targets of 300 or more only seven times in 35 matches.
Kohli, 28, has the ability to play on any track and according to the situation. He again proved himself a true replacement of Sachin. He is the backbone of the Indian batting. If you see the statistics, Kohli is ahead of the Little Master.
Sachin scored 17 centuries in 232 ODIs when chasing. Kohli hit his 17th hundred in only his 96th innings.
No one builds an innings like him and certainly no one has won matches for India like Kohli.
After the ICC World Twenty20, former Indian captain Ganguly rated Kohli better than Sachin as far as chasing targets was concerned.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar once said, "To become a good player, you need talent, but to become a great player, you need an attitude like Virat Kohli."
Kohli’s tally of 27 hundreds is fourth highest in ODIs behind Sachin (49), Ricky Ponting (30) and Sanath Jayasuriya (28).
Kohli is the fastest to reach 27 ODI centuries, beating Sachin’s mark. He took 169 innings to reach the landmark. Sachin took 254, Ponting 308 and Jayasuriya 404.
During the 2013 series against Australia, he slammed a 52-ball 100 to help chase down 360 in Jaipur. In the same series, in Nagpur, Kohli slammed 115 to help India chase down 351.
His highest score in ODIs -- 183 -- came in the Asia Cup clash against Pakistan in Mirpur when India chased down 329 in 2012.
Kohli’s best year was 2011 when he scored 1381 runs in 34 ODIs. He followed up with 1026 in 2012, 1268 in 2013, 1054 in 2014, 623 in 2015 and 739 in 2016.
Kohli’s overall ODI average is 53.10 in 178 appearances, but while chasing his average goes up to 64.30 and rises to 90.90 in successful chases.
There is none like him in T20 cricket. No one even comes close. His T20 average is 16 runs more than the next best.
If Kohli plays for 10 years further, he may surpass many more international records.
*All statistics are updated till the second ODI between India and England, Jan 19, 2017.