Can Virat Kohli reach 100 international centuries?

For more than a decade, the cricketing world has lived with one irresistible desire: that one day, Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli might break legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s iconic record of 100 international centuries.

Kohli’s recent resurgence, back-to-back hundreds against South Africa, taking his tally to 84, has reignited the conversation, but it hasn’t changed the hard mathematics.

As much as fans want the chase to continue, the reality is hard to ignore: Kohli now plays only one format, having retired from the other two.

Kohli, who turned 37 last month, finished his Test career on 30 hundreds, signed off from T20Is with one, and continues to dominate the ODI format with 53 centuries, the most in the world.

However, to reach Tendulkar’s 100, he still needs 16 more. In isolation, 16 might not sound impossible. In context, it looks highly improbable.

It’s worth noting that Tendulkar had a 24-year-long international career, playing 664 matches before retiring at 40.

Kohli, in contrast, retired from two formats even before turning 37 and now features only in ODIs, with an eye on the ICC ODI World Cup in 2027.It is widely expected that he will retire from professional cricket after the World Cup, leaving him limited time to chase the milestone.

Assuming India reach the World Cup final, Kohli’s upcoming schedule offers roughly 41 matches: 18 ODIs across six three-match series in 2026, a possible six-match Asia Cup, 11 World Cup matches, and a couple of preparatory bilateral series.

Forty-one games to score sixteen hundreds means a century every 2.56 innings, a rate beyond even Kohli’s peak performance.

Interestingly, Kohli has a career ODI century rate of one every 5.54 innings. But, in his last 42 ODIs, the rate improves to one every 4.66 matches, commendable, yet insufficient for the 100-century target.

At this pace, Kohli might finish somewhere between 91 and 93 centuries, a legendary tally, historic, yet shy of the round number that the cricketing world obsesses over.

There’s another hurdle that Virat Kohli may not feature in every series leading up to 2027, especially against weaker teams, where younger players are given opportunities. This could further reduce his chances.

While retirement timing is never certain, he might extend his playing career beyond the World Cup; however, Kohli’s abrupt exits from Test and T20 cricket suggest that he would not do that.