Virat Kohli Will Break All Records Except Don Bradman's Average, Says Steve Waugh

Virat Kohli has been on a record-breaking spree lately and legendary Australian cricketer Steve Waugh believes that the Indian skipper will go on to break every batting record except Don Bradman's average of 99.99. "He's (Virat Kohli) got the passion and hunger, the fitness, the desire, the intensity and he loves playing the game. Unless he gets seriously injured, I think he'll break all the batting records besides Bradman's average," Waugh said while talking to Cricket Australia. Bradman retired with a near-perfect average after being dismissed for a duck in his last international innings against England. Nevertheless, Australia won the match by 149 runs as Bradman ended his illustrious career on a high. 

Coming back to Kohli, the 29-year-old has often been compared to the best in the sport and is being hailed as the best batsman across formats.

To put things in perspective, since January 2016, with 7,824 runs Kohli is the highest run-scorer in the world. England's Test skipper Joe Root is the next best with 6,371 runs. 

He also leads the pack when it comes to the number of hundreds scored. Out of his 38 ODI hundreds, Kohli has scored 28 out of them in the last two years. Banned Australian cricketer David Warner and Kohli's deputy Rohit Sharma have scored 16 each since January 2016.

Even when it comes to average, Kohli is far ahead of his contemporaries. In the last two years, Kohli's runs have come at an average of 75.23, while Steve Smith, before being banned in March this year, scored at an average of 53.41.

Moreover, Kohli broke a plethora of records in the recently-concluded five-match ODI series against the Windies. 

He broke Sachin Tendulkar's record by becoming the fastest batsman to score 10,000 ODI runs. Tendulkar reached the landmark in 259 innings, while Kohli took just 205 innings. 

He also became the first Indian to score three consecutive ODI hundreds. 

Kohli has been rested for the three-match T20I series against the Windies starting in Kolkata on Sunday. He will return to action for India's upcoming tour to Australia scheduled to start from November 21.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Australia Cricket Team West Indies Cricket Team Virat Kohli Steve Waugh Cricket