Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli, who turned 31 on Tuesday, is widely regarded as one of the finest batsmen in modern day cricket. Virat has been playing International cricket for a decade now and he has only got better with time – scoring runs with panache and dominating bowlers from all over the world.

There is no apparent weakness to his game, except for the ball that swings away from the corridor of uncertainty early on in his innings. But once he is set, Virat Kohli goes on accumulating runs – make no mistake, all of them with proper cricketing shots and before it sinks in, he is already looking set for a big innings.

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Virat has been so consistent that he has taken unpredictability about his game out of the picture. One can have no clue about what’s going on in the cricket match and yet predict that Virat will score big in the series and there you go, Virat will make this prediction come true because of his obsession with the game and his desire to win.

When Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed for the last time in International cricket, it was Virat Kohli who had come in next to a pin drop silent Wankhede Stadium. Everyone had realised that perhaps this was the last time they were watching Sachin Tendulkar walk back to the pavilion after getting out. However, Virat’s entry after Sachin’s departure was symbolic of how he would take the baton from Sachin and take Indian cricket forward and how he would become the poster boy of Indian cricket in the time to come.

At 31 years of age, Virat is arguably at the peak of his abilities.

Although he has broken many records in his International career so far, he is still behind the mountain of runs that Sachin scored in his career.

Let us have a look at a statistical comparison of Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar at 31

Test Runs

As far as runs in Test match cricket at 31 years of age is concerned, Sachin Tendulkar leads the race. Sachin had made 9470 runs by the time he turned 31. On the other hand, Virat is not far behind and already has 7066 runs. However, it is worth highlighting that while Sachin made his debut in Test match cricket when he was only 16, Virat was 22 when he got his turn. That puts him in a disadvantaged position.

Test hundreds

Like Test cricket, if we talk about hundreds in Test match cricket, it is the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar who is leading the race. Beginning his Test career as a teenager, Sachin already had 33 Test hundreds by the time he was 31. On the other hand, Virat Kohli has 26 Test hundreds to his name.

Test double hundreds

However, Virat beats Sachin as far as the number of Test double hundreds are concerned. While Virat already has 7 Test double hundreds to his name, Sachin Tendulkar managed 6 in his 24-year long career. Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag is tied with Sachin at 6 Test double hundreds.

The king of ODIs?

Like Test matches, Sachin is ahead of Virat Kohli till 31 years of age. Till 31, Sachin had accumulated as many as 13134 runs, however, Virat already has 11520 runs to his name despite starting late. However, the rate at which he is going, Virat is likely to surpass Sachin Tendulkar quite easily in ODI cricket by the time he is done.

ODI hundreds

Although Virat has been lagging behind in all the parameters used till now, at 31 years of age, Virat has more hundreds than 31-year-old Sachin. While the Mumbaikar had managed 37 hundreds by the time he had turned 31, Virat already has a scarcely believable 43 hundreds to his name.

In addition, Sachin also managed an unbeaten ODI double hundred – the first one in the history of the game while Virat’s highest ODI score till date is 183.

The verdict

Both the masters of the game played in different eras and faced different oppositions and challenges while playing at the highest level of the sport and although sports has become so obsessed with numbers, figures, statistics, and data lately, beyond everything else – Sachin and Virat are role models of different generations of different Indias.

While Sachin taught India that anything is possible, Virat is only pushing the possibilities to another level and one can only imagine where Virat will finish by the time he is done because sometimes imagination is more real than reality itself.