Virat Kohli's International Century Tally Predicted By Ex-India Star, And It's Not 100

Aakash Chopra predicted that Virat Kohli will finish his international career with 98 centuries.© AFP

Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra has predicted that batting icon Virat Kohli will finish his international career with 98 centuries. Chopra's remark comes days after Kohli confirmed that the 2027 ODI World Cup would be his last major tournament for India, having already retired from Tests and T20Is. Kohli, who turns 38 next month, has scored 86 international centuries so far, including a record 55 ODI hundreds. Last week, he registered his 55th ODI century during the first ODI against the West Indies in Thiruvananthapuram.

During an interaction on Cricinfo, Chopra was asked to predict how many centuries Kohli would finish with by the end of his international career. He predicted that Kohli would finish his international career with 98 centuries, falling just short of Sachin Tendulkar's all-time record of 100.

With his knock against the West Indies, Kohli rose to second place in the latest ICC ODI batting rankings.

Kohli's 55th ODI century, and 86th international hundred across formats, earned him a rating of 796 and lifted him one place in the rankings, according to the ICC.

The former India captain now trails only teammate Shubman Gill, who strengthened his position at the top with a century of his own in the same match. Gill leads the rankings with 816 rating points.

Kohli also completed 15,000 runs in One-Day International cricket, becoming only the second batter in history after the legendary Sachin Tendulkar to achieve the feat.

Kohli has been the second highest run-scorer in the ODI format ever since he went past former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara in October 2025, who scored 14,243 runs in 50-overs cricket and remains the third highest-ever scorer.

At the fourth spot in the list is former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, who made 13,704 runs in 375 ODIs, followed by former Sri Lanka opener Sanath Jayasuriya at the fifth position with 13,430 runs in 448 matches.

(With Agency Inputs)

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