'Nothing Impossible Because...': Ravi Shastri Backs Virat Kohli to Score 100 International Centuries

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has backed Virat Kohli to score 100 international centuries after the batting maestro became the first batter to hit 50 ODI tons. Kohli has been in sensational form in the ongoing World Cup and has scored three centuries in the tournament to help India reach the final. The 35-year-old smashed his 50th ODI ton on Wednesday to get past Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of most centuries in the 50-over formats.

Meanwhile, Tendulkar still holds the record for most centuries in international cricket – 100 as Kohli is second on the list with 80 tons under his kitty at the moment.

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Shastri feels that scoring 100 international centuries is not impossible for a player like Kohli as he has got his mojo back in the last year and has been scoring tons at regular intervals.

“Who would have thought when Sachin Tendulkar got 100 hundreds that anyone would come close and he’s got 80, 80 international hundreds, 50 of them in the one-day game and which makes him the highest. Unreal. Nothing’s impossible because such players, when they start reeling off hundreds, then they score them pretty quickly. His next 10 innings, you might see another five hundreds,” Shastri told ICC.

The former India head coach pointed out that Kohli plays all three formats and still has around 4 years of cricket left in him considering his high fitness level.

“You have three formats of the game and he’s part of all those formats.

“To think that he still has three or four years of cricket ahead of him is simply mind-boggling,” he added.

Talking about Kohli’s batting, Shastri suggested that the excellent running between the wickets allows him to play less risk-free cricket.

“One of the features of his batting has been his running between the wickets. The fact that he doesn’t have to hit boundaries and sixes, he can run hard between the wickets because of his physical fitness,” Shastri said.

He further said that Kohli has the ability to shift the gears in the fag end of the innings to help the team finish in a formidable position.

“That takes the pressure off him. Even when he’s not getting the boundaries, he’s still rotating the strike.

“And he always has that uncanny ability of making it up towards the back end of the innings,” he added.