Virat kohli vs Sachin Tendulkar; The two personalities I am going to talk about are extremes of each other. One is calm, always smiling while the other is flamboyant, and wears his heart on his sleeves. The first one perhaps epitomizes the rise of India as a nation since the 1990s, while the other one epitomizes the ‘New India’; bold, confident, and skillful.
They might be extreme personalities, but they are quite similar when it comes to performance on the field. The earlier one has now retired from cricket, but he had the same ambition, determination, temperament, readiness for hard work, and ability to perform day in day out just like the second one.
I am talking about Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.
Both are the gems of Indian cricket and their contribution to the game and for India is immense. Let’s just go through their stats and find out who has outperformed the other in analyzing Sachin vs Virat.
Virat kohli vs Sachin Tendulkar – A Statistical comparison
Overall Numbers
Test
| Matches | Innings | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | Highest Score | 100s | 50s | 200s | |
| Sachin | 200 | 329 | 15921 | 53.78 | 54.08 | 248 | 51 | 68 | 6 |
| Virat | 93 | 156 | 7547 | 51.59 | 56.86 | 254 | 27 | 25 | 7 |
ODI
| Matches | Innings | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | Highest Score | 100s | 50s | 200s | |
| Sachin | 463 | 452 | 18426 | 44.83 | 86.24 | 200 | 49 | 96 | 1 |
| Virat | 254 | 245 | 12169 | 59.07 | 93.17 | 183 | 43 | 62 | 0 |
Sachin has played only one T-20I, while Virat has 89 T-20I caps. So the T-20I comparison is out of the equation.
In Tests, Sachin has played 200 matches and Virat just 7 less than half of Sachin. Will Virat surpass Sachin’s Test run record, only time will tell us. But theoretically, if Virat continues to play the next 107 Tests with the same tempo, then he can surpass Sachin.
In ODIs, Virat to date has outplayed Sachin and has been regarded as the best finisher of this generation by many experts. Virat has scored 14 more runs per inning than Sachin. So if you see Virat surpassing Sachin in both formats, don’t be surprised.
Virat needs 8374 runs in Tests and 6257 runs in ODIs to go past Sachin. So still there is a long way to go. Cricket is an old funny game, it has many variables, so it’s not as straightforward as it seems.
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On the same platform: Sachin vs Virat
Virat has played 89 T-20Is and has scored 3159 runs at a whopping average of 52.65. Combining the three formats, Virat has played a total of 484 innings.
Now to eliminate all the variables in the upcoming years of Virat, why not just check how Sachin had performed at the 484 inning mark?
| Sachin after 484 innings | Innings | Runs | Average | 100s |
| Tests | 173 | 8882 | 56.57 | 31 |
| ODIs | 311 | 12640 | 45.14 | 36 |
| Overall | 484 | 21552 | 49.24 | 67 |
Virat after 484 innings
| Virat after 484 innings | Innings | Runs | Average | 100s |
| Tests | 155 | 7547 | 52.04 | 27 |
| ODIs | 245 | 12169 | 59.07 | 43 |
| T-20Is | 84 | 3159 | 52.65 | 0 |
| Overall | 484 | 22875 | 55.65 | 70 |
Now the picture seems to be clearer and fairer than what it was earlier.
Virat has scored 1323 runs more than Sachin at the 484 inning mark. Not only runs, but Virat is ahead by 3 centuries also.
The age factor
Let’s see how Sachin had performed when he was at Virat’s current age.
| Format | Innings | Runs | Average | 100s |
| Tests | 184 | 9470 | 57.39 | 33 |
| ODIs | 324 | 13134 | 44.82 | 37 |
| Overall | 508 | 22604 | 49.35 | 70 |
There isn’t too much separating both the greats, even centuries are also the same.
The only thing which one could put forward is that, at the 32-year mark, Virat has 271 runs more than Sachin, Virat has the same number of centuries and there is a considerable difference between the overall averages of both.
Here Virat seems to be better than Sachin.
The Virat supporters might say the numbers could have been even better if he hadn’t gone through a rough patch.
Anyway, this is what it is.
Centuries in a team’s victory
How well Sachin might perform, the critics would always point towards Sachin’s centuries in the team victories. Out of 100 centuries, 53 have led India towards a victory, which means 53%.
Virat has 70 centuries and 48 of them have been in winning cause, that is 68.57%.
While chasing in ODIs, Virat has hit 26 centuries and 22 of them have come in victory, meaning 84.61% of centuries during chases have come in victories.
Sachin has scored 16 centuries while chasing and has rescued India 13 times, which is 81.25%.
Again, the difference isn’t too big, but just the fact that Virat has scored 60.46% of his total ODI centuries while chasing and has been on the right side for 84.61% of it, You just cannot deny his chasing abilities.
Sachin has 16 centuries while chasing, which is 32.65% of his total centuries.
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Things that favor Virat
Cricket over the years has been changing and evolving continuously. When Sachin made his debut, the commercialization of cricket was taking its first steps. When Virat made his debut, commercialization was already the most important factor in cricket and it has been growing since then.
The commercialization brought money into the game and with money, more leagues and international matches started to happen more frequently.
You would not have seen players in the 1990s and early 2000s complaining about mental stress and all that stuff. There was less cricket, which means that Sachin got slightly fewer opportunities to be on the field than Virat has now.
Science and technology have played a huge role in bolstering the Virat’s numbers. With science, bats became lighter and more powerful, while the ball remained the same as it has been for the ages.
The rules mostly favor the batsmen now, with shorter boundaries, powerplays, free hits, DRS, quick outfields, the game has become a friend of batsmen.
Verdict: Virat kohli vs Sachin Tendulkar
As far as numbers are concerned, Virat seems to be ahead of Sachin and he can break Sachin’s records in the future.
But as cliché in cricket says, ‘numbers tell only half the story. That’s certainly true. Well, you can compare them just on pure numbers and it would mean that Virat is the best. But there are some aspects in sports which you just can’t measure with a scale, these are intangible things.
The personalities are different, the conditions, the struggles through which both have gone through are different. So it’s impossible to literally compare them because we cannot bring both on the same platform.
Last Word
In a democracy, everyone has the right to speak and put his thoughts in front of everyone. Virat fans would say he has better numbers, Sachin fans would say he is the God of cricket.
Whatever it may be, both have gained so much success in their career and been the best in the business throughout it. They are the best in their leagues.
To be on a lighter note, no one could compare which tastes the best, Vadapav or Chhole Bhature. Both are best in their respective regions and loved by millions of people.Â
