“I was very sure that he was a rare talent” - When Virat Kohli’s greatness was predicted by ex-India head coach Gary Kirsten
Former South African opener Gary Kirsten later became India's head coach and he admitted immidiately realizing Virat Kohli's destiny to all-time greatness. While Kirsten was India's coach from 2008 to 2011, Kohli debuted in the Sri Lankan ODI series in 2008.
After establishing himself in the ODI format over the next couple of years, Kohli helped India win the 2011 ODI World Cup with Kirsten as the coach.
Two years after departing as India's head coach in 2013, Kirsten recalled working with Kohli in an interview with the PTI as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo:
"I always had a different kind of feeling when I started working with Virat Kohli. From the beginning, I was very sure that he was a rare talent and would become a great player. He grew massively in these past few years and has matured a lot. I was fortunate to be part of that process of seeing him grow and that give me immense pleasure."
However, Kirsten stayed away from placing Kohli on the pedestal as the replacement to the legendary Sachin Tendulkar in 2013.
"I have always been very careful about appointing someone in that place (Tendulkar's replacement). It's a very dangerous position and very risky to name anyone. All I can say is that Kohli is a fantastic batsman whom the opposition bowlers are finding difficult to get out. The teams nowadays do a lot of planning to get him out," Kirsten stated.
Kohli scored five centuries in 54 ODI games during Kirsten's tenure as Indian head coach. However, the champion batter made his Test debut only in 2011 after the South African's departure.
How does Virat Kohli's numbers stack up against Sachin Tendulkar?
It has been 11 years since Gary Kirsten's above-mentioned words on Kohli being the heir apparent to Sachin Tendulkar. The former has since made incredible strides to the point where the comparison between the two is visibly close, especially in ODIs.
While Tendulkar remains the all-time leading run-scorer in ODIs with 18.426 runs, Kohli is third with 13,906 runs. The latter, however, has overtaken Tendulkar's record for ODI centuries (49) by reaching his 50th ton in the 2023 ODI World Cup semi-final against New Zealand
Yet, with that said, Tendulkar still maintains a sizeable lead in the Test format with 15,921 runs and 51 centuries compared to Kohli's tallies of 8,871 runs and 29 tons.
With 80 international centuries, Kohli is second all-time and 20 behind Tendulkar's magical 100 three-figure scores.