Virat Kohli’s birthday wishlist: Records that the India talisman would aim to achieve before retiring originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
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India ace Virat Kohli turns 38 with 86 international hundreds, needing 14 more to reach Sachin Tendulkar’s 100.
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A 60-plus ODI average, a double century and 18,000 runs sit on his list too.
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World Cup glory in 2027 and 10,000 IPL runs could cap a remarkable career.
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From Rohit Sharma’s 264 to Sachin Tendulkar’s 100 tons: Virat Kohli’s ultimate bucket list on 38th birthday
Virat Kohli has collected almost every honour a batter could ask for, but a birthday is a good occasion to look at the things that are still missing from the collection. The India talisman turned 38 on November 5, and a handful of records and ambitions remain firmly within sight, even if some of them look awfully steep.
Some of these goals are matters of pure arithmetic, such as the hundreds he still needs or the runs required to catch Sachin Tendulkar’s ODI total. Others are more personal, including a double century that has always escaped him and a World Cup trophy that slipped away in 2023.
Since he has already stepped away from Tests and T20Is, the 50-over game is now the main stage on which most of this business will be settled. That puts a premium on every series he plays, and every innings carries a little more significance than it once did.
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What follows is a wishlist of eight items, taken in roughly the order of their difficulty, starting with the biggest mountain in the sport.
Virat Kohli India 09272026
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Kohli’s 100 international centuries: 14 more needed to match Sachin Tendulkar’s record
Kohli currently has 86 international centuries, made up of 55 in ODIs, 30 in Tests and one in T20Is. Tendulkar finished with 100, composed of 51 Test hundreds and 49 in ODIs, so Kohli needs 14 more to join him.
That total is widely regarded as the largest statistical peak in cricket, and it is the item that overshadows the rest of the list. Reaching it would demand a steady run of big scores in a limited number of matches, which is why it remains a long shot even for a batter of his class.
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Can Kohli retire with a 60-plus ODI batting average?
His ODI average sits at roughly 58.5 to 59.1 across more than 315 matches, which is already outstanding by any standard. The next step would be to bring it above 60.00 before he calls time.
No batter in history has kept a 60-plus average over a career of 300 or more games, and the players with higher figures than Kohli have all appeared in far fewer matches, somewhere between 50 and 100. A late surge with plenty of not-outs, however, could seal a record that would remain unbeaten for a long time.
Kohli’s chase for 18,000 ODI runs and Tendulkar’s all-time total
Kohli has scored more than 15,100 ODI runs, which places him second on the all-time list and well ahead of Kumar Sangakkara’s 14,234. Tendulkar remains on top with 18,426, a gap of more than 3,300 runs.
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Crossing 18,000, or even overtaking Tendulkar, is unlikely, yet it is not out of the question if he continues playing the 50-over format beyond the 2027 World Cup.
MORE: Duffy teases Kohli, calls him ‘annoying’ after losing 1st ODI at Auckland
A maiden ODI double century
Kohli’s highest ODI score is the 183 he made against Pakistan in Mirpur in 2012, off 148 balls. He has seven double hundreds in Tests, but no 200 in the 50-over game, which makes it one of the few gaps in his limited-overs record.
There is also a friendly rivalry attached to the target. Rohit Sharma owns three ODI double centuries, including the world-record 264 against Sri Lanka in Kolkata in 2014, and Kohli has never really threatened that mark in a single innings.
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Most runs in ODI run chases: Kohli’s push towards 9,000
Run chases have always been Kohli’s specialty, and the numbers back it up. He has scored over 8,741 runs while batting second, at an average above 66, and he overtook Tendulkar’s record of 8,720 in Auckland to become the leading run-scorer in successful and unsuccessful pursuits.
The next landmark is 9,000, which no one has reached in chases before, and at his current pace it looks entirely realistic.
Kohli’s 2027 World Cup dream on African soil
Kohli won the ICC World Cup in 2011 as a youngster and finished as runner-up in 2023, so lifting it as a senior player would be the perfect way to bookend a career.
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The 2027 tournament will be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, and it is widely expected to be the stage on which his ODI story reaches its final chapter.
Can Kohli become the first batter to score 10,000 IPL runs?
In the IPL, Kohli leads the all-time run charts with more than 9,300 runs. Another 700 or so would make him the first cricketer to cross the 10,000 mark in the tournament’s history, a feat that seems well within his grasp over the next season or two.
MORE: Virat Kohli strengthens reputation as ODI cricket’s greatest chase master
Virat Kohli India
BCCI/Creimas
Why Virat Kohli’s wishlist matters more for India than for his own record book
Kohli’s list looks like a set of statistical targets, yet the most interesting thing about it is how few of them he actually needs. A man with 86 international centuries, a second-place spot on the all-time ODI run charts and an IPL record that nobody else can possibly match has nothing left to prove, and that freedom may be his biggest asset heading into the next phase of his career.
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The hundred international tons is the headline item, and it will draw the most attention, but it is difficult. Fourteen more centuries from a 38-year-old who now plays one format for India is a very tall order, and it would be unfair to judge his remaining years by whether he gets there.
The 2027 World Cup is a far better yardstick. He has won the trophy as a young man and lost the final as a senior one, so a second title in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia would complete a story that his numbers alone cannot tell.
Meanwhile, a run-chase total of 9,000, 10,000 IPL runs and a 60-plus ODI average all reward the very qualities that made him great, namely patience, fitness and an unmatched feel for a target.
Kohli has never needed a list to stay motivated, but for fans, a birthday is the right time to enjoy what is still ahead of him.
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