West Indies legend Brian Lara’s Instagram story for Virat Kohli before and after the talismanic India batter’s hundred in the first ODI against Sri Lanka in Guwahati went viral on social media.

“I think I will wait to watch this man bat!!” Brian Lara said in his post on the popular photo and video sharing app that included a photo of Virat Kohli sitting in the Indian dugout.

When the Indian batting maestro slammed his 45th ODI hundred, Brian Lara posted another message for Virat Kohli with #morningrun. The Caribbean great was extremely happy to see Virat Kohli achieve his 73rd international ton against Sri Lanka.

En route, the Delhi-born cricketer became the fastest to reach 45 hundreds and 12,500 runs in One-Day Internationals.

While Sachin Tendulkar needed 424 innings to complete 45 tons in ODIs, the Delhi-born batter only required 257 knocks to get there. Additionally, Virat Kohli achieved 12,500 runs in 257 ODI innings, ahead of the Little Master who did it in 310.

Virat Kohli also has the most centuries in international cricket as a non-opener.

Besides the above-mentioned milestones, he became the first man to score at least nine centuries against two different teams in ODI cricket.

Previously, both Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar had 9 tons each against West Indies and Australia respectively. The legendary cricketers had collected 8 hundreds each against Sri Lanka as well. But with his century against Dasun Shanaka and his men, Virat Kohli now stands alone in the list with 9 centuries against both Sri Lanka and West Indies.

The 34-year-old matched Sachin Tendulkar’s record of making the most number of centuries on home soil as well. Both Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli now have 20 tons each in India.

The number of knocks Virat Kohli took to reach there though was far less compared to Sachin Tendulkar. While Little Master needed 160 innings to hit 20 centuries in ODIs at home, the India No.3 accomplished the feat in only 99 knocks.

Meanwhile, former India cricketers, Sanjay Manjrekar, Gautam Gambhir, and Saba Karim predicted that Virat Kohli would soon displace Sachin Tendulkar to become the leading century-maker in ODIs.

“I have no doubt that he will overtake Sachin Tendulkar in one-day hundreds. The Test hundreds, that would be a big mountain to climb. In this format, he is an all-time great, not to say that he is not a Test match great. He just needs 4 hundreds to equal Tendulkar in ODIs whereas, in Tests, Tendulkar has 51 hundreds. I hope he carries that ambition and aspiration to get there. But 49, I am sure may be will happen in a year and a half,” Sanjay Manjrekar said.

“See what’s happened in the last couple of years, we have been talking that Virat Kohli has been out of form. He has been getting the one big knock which has promoted celebrations and talks like ‘King is back’ and that Kohli has found his mojo. And then what happens is there would be another run of low scores, then another good innings would come.”

“Today (on Tuesday), the passion was there, the smile was back when he was celebrating the hundred. I got the impression that he wanted this badly, for the form to stay with him, not just one innings and then getting out for 3-4 innings. This is two consecutive hundreds, which is a great sign. For the greats of Indian batting like Kohi and Tendulkar, hundreds came one after the other,” Sanjay Manjrekar noted.

“It’s not about the record, honestly. Virat Kohli will go on to get many more centuries than Sachin Tendulkar in the 50-overs format. See, the rules have changed,” Gautam Gambhir said on Star Sports.

“You should not compare eras. It’s not fair to compare eras as well where there was one new ball as compared to now when there are 2 new balls with five fielders inside. But yes, he has been a master in this format and he has shown it over such a long period of time,” Gambhir added.

“Sachin Tendulkar would be the happiest if Virat Kohli broke his record of scoring the most ODI centuries. With the kind of form that he is in, I think he is going to break that record very soon,” Saba Karim told India News.

“I don’t think Kohli is playing for records at the moment. He aims to win the World Cup for Team India and is completely focused on that,” he concluded.

The second ODI between India and Sri Lanka will be played at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata where Virat Kohli would look to complete a hat-trick of centuries in the 50-over format for the second time in his career.

Earlier, he had achieved the feat against the West Indies in 2018.