For nearly three years, Virat Kohli endured a century drought across formats. It was in November 2019 that Kohli scored a century in India’s inaugural day-night Test match vs Bangladesh following which he underwent a dry phase that lasted till the Asia Cup in September 2022 when he scored a maiden century in T20Is.
For someone of Kohli’s caliber that was a really long wait especially in light of how consistent he was when it came to scoring hundreds. Social media would be abuzz with praises including ‘another day, another century’ or ‘eat, sleep, score 100, repeat’.
It even appeared a real possibility that Kohli will surpass Sachin Tendulkar’s all-time record of 100 international centuries.
Kohli though is steadily approaching his form of old but with the former India captain in his mid-thirties, it looks increasingly difficult that he can emulate Tendulkar’s feat.
But Sri Lanka legend Chaminda Vaas reckons it’s too early to predict that Kohli cannot do it.
“Most people want Kohli to perform all the time. If he fails in one or two games, people react in a different way, because Kohli has been scoring right from the beginning of his career,” Vaas told the Hindustan Times.
“A player can go out of touch, but there is no doubt about his class. Even on the West Indies tour, he has performed. He wants to improve and contribute to Indian cricket. I’m sure he will do well,” he added.
Vaas played plenty of cricket against Tendulkar during his international career and reckons that Kohli still has the technique and fitness level to keep performing at the top level.
“Even in (Sachin) Tendulkar’s latter part, people expected him to perform in every match. But that can’t happen all the time. Maybe that’s why Kohli is lacking right now. His fitness level and technique is really good, as far as I’m concerned,” Vaas said.
“Record as there to be broken, you know, you can’t keep records all the time. Different eras, different players, but the way I see it, Kohli is still young and has a lot of time. Age is just a number, and the way he’s performing, I’m sure he will do well for Indian cricket. We have seen different generations in which India has produced excellent cricketers,” he added.
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