After 1,020 days, the wait for Kohli’s 71st century during the Asia Cup is finally over. He played a brilliant innings of 122* off 61 balls against Afghanistan and in doing so equaled Ponting’s record of 71 international tons.
After equaling Ponting, Kohli now has only one name in the list of most centuries – Tendulkar with 100 centuries.
“If you had asked me three years ago, I would have said yes,” Ponting said in the ICC review.
“But the fact that it’s slowed down as much as … yes, I still think it’s possible for him, no doubt about it. I still think he’s got many years ahead of him, but I think still 30 international hundreds behind, that’s a lot. That’s five or six Test centuries a year for the next three or four years. If you throw a couple of ODIs, maybe the odd T20 ones on top of it. Look, I would say never with Virat because you know once he gets on a little roll, you know how hungry he is and how eager he is for success. I would never say it’s a definite Is not in form. Added.
The T20 World Cup starts in less than a month, but India still has a lot of cricket to play ahead of the tournament.
India have two white-ball assignments – they will take on South Africa in three ODIs and T20Is and a three-match T20I series in Australia before heading to Australia for the World Cup.
Even though Kohli has been picked for both the T20I series, Ponting feels that he still needs to decide whether he needs another break before the World Cup.
“Yeah, it’s a really good question and maybe it’s the only question he can answer. It just depends on how he’s feeling mentally,” Ponting said.
He said, “When you are playing, you don’t even realize how tired you are until you take a step back because you always bluff yourself and assure yourself that you are physically fit. And mentally 100 percent correct.”
“Sometimes you’re nowhere near that. And I think Virat has really come out and said that, he just didn’t realize it until he got that extended break , how bad he was till then. If he continues to score runs now, I am sure he will play the next series. If he plays it and plays well and starts playing a little bit, I think he will Wants to keep playing. He wants to keep that momentum going,” said the Australian legend.
“But if he has a bit of a patch again, it will probably be in his interest and in India’s interest to try and get him as mentally refreshed as he can in the World Cup,” Ponting said. (ANI)
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