Ranchi smelled faintly of winter then Virat Kohli departed with a hundred in his arms. Raipur felt warmer, almost celebratory, when he picked up the bat again three days later. Back-to-back hundreds in ODIs – his 83rd and 84th international centuries – weren’t just a statistical revival; they were a reminder of the old currents that still run through it. The sureness in his footwork, the clarity of his thoughts, the hunger in his eyes; it all seemed familiar to him, like a tune he hadn’t forgotten to play.
And just like that, the question resurfaced. One that has hovered over Indian cricket for almost a decade: Can Virat Kohli reach a hundred international hundreds?
For two years it seemed rhetorical, something to laugh at nostalgically. But after Ranchi and Raipur, the idea no longer seems absurd. It feels like a possibility—distant, shimmering, unlikely, but possible.
Kohli’s world is narrower now. Test cricket is no longer his arena. He retired from T20Is almost two years ago. It lives in the space of ODI cricket – a format whose relevance is constantly debated, whose calendar is shrinking, whose windows are squeezed between T20 leagues and bilateral engagements.
And yet, paradoxically, this narrowing of scope may be his only path to a hundred.
The existence of one format means that every ODI innings is a chance to kick, build, carve something big. But it also means that the road is more fragile; there are fewer games and therefore fewer chances.
The program of future trips to India until 2027 offers him mixed blessings. The schedule so far gives it 29 ODIs – three each against New Zealand, Afghanistan, England (away), West Indies, New Zealand again (away) and Sri Lanka in 2026. Add in the 2027 World Cup, now reverting to its older, sprawling 14-team format with group stages and Super Six, and India could play at least 11 finals.
Also read: Will Virat transform his style to aim for the 2027 World Cup?
That’s 29 games by no stretch of the imagination. But cricket calendars are fluid things. There is scope for more: Asia Cup possibly in ODI format, warm-up series before the World Cup, tie-breakers.
By the time India enters the World Cup in 2027, the number could be around 35 ODIs.
35 matches. 16 hundred is needed. That’s roughly the equation.
KOHLI vs THE CLOCK
If numbers acted like stories, this wouldn’t work. 16 hundreds in roughly 35 games requires a pace few mortals have ever approached.
But Kohli has always existed on the edge of the curve. What is its peak?
Between 2017 and 2019, he scored 17 ODI hundreds in 65 innings – a period in which he flexed the statistical possibility into something elastic. That was a hundred every 3.8 innings!
And here’s another thing. In his last 19 ODI innings – including Ranchi and Raipur – Kohli has five hundreds.
That’s also one every 3.8 innings.
The man somehow circles back to his peak.
But to reach 100 hundreds, he has to surpass his peak. Needs to change 3.8 to 2.1. He needs to beat the best version of himself.
It seems unreasonable on paper. But on the field, Kohli has spent 15 years creating a disproportionate appearance with routine.
He made 11 separate streaks of consecutive ODI hundreds – twos, threes, clusters of form that come suddenly like a summer storm. No one else in the history of the format even comes close.
And streaks don’t follow logic. They do not ask for planning coherence or optimal conditions. They come when something aligns in it—rhythm, hunger, clarity—and then they multiply.
Ranchi and Raipur were not isolated events. They were the beginning of a familiar formula: sharpening angles, pushing forward early, soft hands, mastering pace. The Kohli of streaks has reappeared.
And if the series hits at the right time — the 2026 domestic season or the 2027 World Cup — six or seven hundred could come at once. Suddenly, 100 wouldn’t seem mythical; it would seem out of order.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY
But that’s the part where reality kicks in.
Kohli will be 38 at the 2027 World Cup. His appetite remains insatiable, but bodies whisper truths that the mind doesn’t always accept. Time is not elastic for him either. Workload management will be decisive. India will want the young batsmen to be bled so that they can have backups. Not every match will offer the canvas it needs.
The road to 100 is steep. The older it gets, the steeper it tilts upwards.
CAN HE DO IT?
There is no definite no when it comes to Kohli. It never was.
Because Kohli’s greatest triumphs came when cricketing logic said otherwise – the chase in Hobart, the semi-final in Mumbai, the T20 World Cup miracle in Melbourne. His career is associated with moments he shouldn’t have created.
And so the dream still breathes. 16 hundreds. Roughly 35 innings. One man who always made ambition seem too small a word.
It doesn’t have to happen. He may remember it as a chase that stayed just out of reach.
After Ranchi and Raipur, the chase suddenly feels alive again.
Kohli may not reach a hundred – but if anyone can make us believe in the impossible once again, it’s him. And this belief alone makes the path unmissable.
– The end
Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
December 5, 2025
