Virat Kohli's Phenomenal Year

When India's series with Sri Lanka began, I heard a lot of commentary about how this was a JAMODI (Just Another Meaningless ODI) series, most interestingly from people who enjoy the 7 week mediocre tedium of the IPL in which the quality of cricket as a rule is very poor. International ODI cricket - especially a series between two teams which contested the World Cup Final in 2011 (one of these two teams has made two consecutive World Cup Finals now, in 2007 and 2011), offers a higher quality of cricket despite the ICC's constant tinkering with ODI playing conditions. Australia v England (24 matches) and India v Sri Lanka (28 matches) have been the most frequent ODI match ups over the previous three years. This is India's first bilateral series against Sri Lanka since December 2009.

One of India's upcoming batting superstars scored 2 centuries in the series, which India have now won 3-1 with one game to be played. He has also reached 1000 ODI runs in the calendar year as a result, in only 15 games. 106 players have so far scored 1000 ODI runs in a calendar year. To put Kohli's achievement into perspective, Hashim Amla made 1000 runs in only 15 matches in 2010. No other batsman has ever come close. Tillekratne Dilshan did it in 19 games in 2009. In Sachin Tendulkar's greatest year as an ODI batsman - 1998, when he made 1894 runs in the year, a record which still stands, he reached his 1000th run in his 19th innings of the year. In 2003, he scored his 1000th run of the year in his 20th innings.

Kohli has made 13 ODI centuries in 86 ODI innings, the finest record among batsmen with at least 5 ODI centuries - a century every 6.5 innings. Hashim Amla has a similar record, but no other batsman comes close. Sachin Tendulkar is third best, with a century every 9 ODI innings over 452 innings. Among batsmen with at least 10 ODI centuries, only Tendulkar and AB de Villiers score a century at a rate better than once every 10 innings. Kohli now has 8 ODI centuries in his last 26 ODI innings.

As bursts of form go, this is something that one gets to see once in a decade.

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