With him playing in Australia for the first time in ODI’s in five years, Virat Kohli will be playing in probably his last tour to Australia. With the Indian team set to play in 25 ODI’s till the 2027 World Cup, the three-match ODI series is the only ODI series against Australia in Australia prior to the World Cup. Kohli, who is currently placed third on the highest run-getter list in ODI cricket with a total of 14,181 runs, will be eying to add to his tally of ODI runs in the ODI series starting at Perth on Sunday and former Australian opener Matthew Hayden has termed Kohli as a ‘Ferrari’ and ‘bloody good’.
“Virat is high octane, he’s a Ferrari. He’s full noise, he’ll be gesturing to the crowd. You’ll have Jiostar that’ll be focusing on everything he does on the cricket field. And everything is so big that it’s hard not to polarise your views on it because he’s so bloody good,” Hayden said on the All Over Bar The Cricket Youtube Channel.
Kohli just needs 54 more runs to get past Kumar Sangakarra’s tally of 14,234 runs in ODI cricket to climb to the second spot in the highest run-getter list in the format. The Indian batsman is also 67 runs shy of Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 18,369 runs in white-ball cricket to become the highest run-getter in white-ball cricket in the world. While Kohli has so far hit 51 centuries in ODIs, the former Indian captain has scored five ODI centuries in Australia in his tally of 1327 runs in ODI format in Australia. Hayden also believes that Kohli is focussing on the 2027 World Cup and wants to be part of the Indian team for the mega event. “He has played 302 matches and got 14,000 runs and what about this average in One-day cricket, it’s unbelievable. His key is that he is a gold star with his fitness and preparation. In my head, I’ve got him focusing on 2027 ( World Cup). He wants to be a part of that,” Hayden added.
Earlier, former Indian wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik too had shared that he believes Kohli is preparing hard to be in shape for the next 2-3 years in ODI format including the 2027 World Cup. Kohli, who retired from T20Is last year before retiring from Test cricket early this year, had been spending time in London before he joined the Indian team for the Australia tour. “In London, he was training during this big layoff that he’s had after a long time in his life. And I also know he was practising cricket easily, two to three sessions a week. And if he is around, there is no tension, according to me, because he knows what it takes to perform under pressure. And he’s done that time and time again. And I’m very confident he will do it again,” Karthik had said earlier this week.