Virat Kohli in ODIs: why the chase master is the greatest ODI batter ever
15,080 runs, a record 55 hundreds and 25 centuries in winning chases. The numbers behind Kohli's case as the best 50-over batter the game has seen.
Virat Kohli's unbeaten 139 against West Indies in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday did more than win India the first ODI. It took him past 15,000 ODI runs, and it was his 55th ODI hundred and the 25th in a successful run chase. It is also a good moment to make the case, with numbers, that Kohli is the greatest ODI batter the game has seen.
Virat Kohli ODI stats at a glance
Figures as of 27 September 2026, after the 1st ODI against West Indies:
- ODI runs: 15,080, second only to Sachin Tendulkar (18,426)
- ODI hundreds: 55, the most by any batter in a single format (Tendulkar made 49 ODI hundreds)
- Batting average: around 58, with a strike rate above 93
- Highest score: 183 against Pakistan at the 2012 Asia Cup
- 15,000 runs in 303 innings. Tendulkar needed 377.
Faster than anyone to every milestone
Kohli has been the fastest batter to 8,000, 9,000, 10,000, 11,000, 12,000, 13,000, 14,000 and now 15,000 ODI runs. He reached 10,000 in just 205 innings in 2018. His 15,000 came 74 innings sooner than Tendulkar's.
What sets him apart is the combination. Plenty of batters have scored quickly, and a few have averaged in the 50s over a long career. Nobody else has kept an average near 58 and a strike rate above 93 across more than 300 ODIs and 18 years at the top.
The chase master: Kohli's record in run chases
Kohli's reputation was built on chasing, and the numbers back it up.
- Runs while chasing: 8,638
- Runs in successful chases: 6,374, almost three-quarters of everything he has scored while chasing
- Hundreds while chasing: 30
- Hundreds in successful chases: 25. Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma have 14 each.
- 25 of his 30 chasing hundreds have ended in an India win, a conversion rate above 83 per cent.
His average while chasing is around 64, well clear of AB de Villiers in second place among the great ODI batters. In chases that India go on to win, it rises to roughly 90. Put simply, when Kohli is still in, India almost always get there.
Why he is so good at chasing
Kohli treats a target like a sum to be worked out. He rarely takes risks early, rotates the strike relentlessly (he has taken more singles than anyone in ODI history) and trusts himself to catch up later. The required rate never seems to rattle him, because he has already planned how he will get there. The boundaries come once he is set and the bowlers are tiring.
Sunday's innings showed all of it. With India chasing 296 on a flat pitch, he walked in at 75 for 1, added 150 with Shubman Gill, got to his hundred off 74 balls with a six and finished unbeaten on 139 off 88. India won with 50 balls to spare.
Big-tournament pedigree
Kohli has delivered on the biggest stages too:
- 2011 World Cup winner, including a hundred on his World Cup debut
- 2013 Champions Trophy winner
- 2023 World Cup Player of the Tournament: 765 runs at an average of 95.62, the first batter to score more than 700 runs in a single World Cup
- Named ICC ODI Cricketer of the Decade
Is Virat Kohli the best ODI batter ever?
Sachin Tendulkar still has the most ODI runs, and Viv Richards redefined what was possible in his era. But Kohli has scored more ODI hundreds than anyone, reached every run milestone from 8,000 onwards faster than anyone, kept his average near 58 for well over a decade, and made more hundreds in winning chases than any batter in history. For consistency, speed and match-winning impact combined, the numbers make the strongest case for Kohli.
At 37, he is still adding to them. The next target on his list is Tendulkar's 18,426.
India vs West Indies: what's next
India lead the three-match ODI series 1-0. Check tryball.in for the 2nd ODI's date, IST start time, and the TV channel and live-streaming app.