Virat Kohli's Batting Position is No. 3, Nowhere Else: Sunil Gavaskar

Not amused at Team India's constant tinkering with the batting order, Sunil Gavaskar said Thursday's century has "emphasized the fact that the No. 3 slot in ODIs belong to Virat Kohli." Nobody else.

Kohli scored his 23rd ODI century in the fourth ODI against South Africa in Chennai. His 138 off 140 balls powered India to 299 for 8 after skipper MS Dhoni won the toss and opted to bat. India won by 35 runs to level the five-match series 2-2. India have already lost the Twenty20 series.

Gavaskar, not happy with India's constant change in the batting order, said on STAR Sports that Thursday's century only underlined the fact that Kohli was the best man at No. 3 position. In the first two ODIs in Kanpur and Indore, Kohli had batted at No. 4 and managed scores of 11 and 12, respectively.(Scorecard | Blog)

Kohli was back at his customary No. 3 position in the third ODI in Rajkot and top scored for India with a 77. Considering the fact that India's openers have not been successful in this series, Kohli had the time to build his innings and crucial partnerships.

On Thursday, Kohli paced his innings well after coming in at 28 for the fall of opener Rohit Sharma. Kohli featured in two 100-run stands - 104 for the third wicket with Ajinkya Rahane and 127 for the fourth with Suresh Raina - that helped India score torrents of runs till the 45th over.

Virat equaled Sachin Tendulkar in equalling the record of scoring a ODI ton against every Test-playing nation. Although he 26 centuries shy of Tendulkar's record 49 ODI tons, Kohli's strike rate is far better than Tendulkar and former skipper Sourav Ganguly.

Kohli's 23rd ODI ton came in his 157th match while Tendulkar took a whopping 452 games to get his 49th. Ganguly took 300 to score 22 ODI centuries.

"His appetite for big runs is the reason for this conversion of 100s," said Gavaskar, who added that Kohli always wanted to score a century after getting a fifty.

"Even on a hot day like Thursday, he did not give up after scoring a century. He was running hard and scoring runs for the other batsmen too. Till he cramped up, Kohli kept on trying to score runs for the team," said Gavaskar on Kohli's thirst for runs.

Gavaskar said Kohli's ability to play orthodox cricket was his greatest strength. He would not take unnecessary risks like a Virender Sehwag, said Gavaskar.

"Sehwag took risks for breakfast. To score a century with a six was certainly taking a huge risk for Virat," said Gavaskar