Virat Kohli Warned He 'Won't Break Sachin Tendulkar's Record', Advised to 'Turn Around in Next 10 Tests'

At his peak, Virat Kohli was head and shoulders ahead of his peers. Till 2019, he was scoring centuries for fun and was tipped to break a majority of – if not all – batting records held by the great Sachin Tendulkar.  After a sparkling hundred in India’s inaugural day-night Test, held in November of 2019, he suffered through a major century drought that lasted till the 2022 Asia Cup when he scored a maiden T20I ton. That signaled a change of fortunes and last year, he scored over 750 runs at the ODI World Cup which is a tournament record.

However, Kohli hasn’t been exactly able to match the sky-high standards he’s set for himself in the past, at least in Test cricket where England batter Joe Root has marched ahead of his contemporaries.

In 20 Test innings alone this year, Root has amassed 986 runs at an average of 54.77 and is 3,519 runs behind Tendulkar’s record of most runs – 15,921 – in Test history. Age and form are on Root’s side.

On the other hand, Kohli has 8,871 runs and will turn 36 in November this year. Clearly, he’s fallen way behind in the race to match Tendulkar’s Test returns and needs a remarkable turnaround to become a real contender.

Former Australia spinner Brad Hogg reckons that it will be Root and not Kohli who has the potential to surpass Tendulkar.

“I just don’t think Virat is going to get there,” said Hogg. “I think he’s lost his momentum, and the momentum that he’s lost has been for a number of years now. He’s got to turn around in the next 10 Test matches, or he’s going to drop off.”

“So, Joe Root has (played) 146 Test matches with 12,000 (12,402) runs. Sachin Tendulkar made nearly 16,000 runs in 200 Test matches. That’s 4,000 runs in 66 Tests. I think Joe Root can go close to toppling that,” he added.

Kohli made his return to Test cricket with the ongoing Bangladesh series at home after missing out a five-match series against England earlier this year due to personal reasons. However, he mustered 23 runs in the contest as India went on to win by 280 runs to take 1-0 lead.

The second and final Test starts from Friday in Kanpur.