Virat Kohli recently became the 10th player in history to clock 500 international appearances joining the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting among others in the list.
He made that milestone even more memorable by hitting a century, his 29th of Test career which drew him on level terms with Australia legend Sir Don Bradman.
Kohli has long drawn comparisons with Tendulkar thanks to his surreal consistency across formats and the incredible rate at which he has scored centuries.
At one point of his career, Kohli was even tipped to break Tendulkar’s record of 100 international centuries. However, he endured a century drought that lasted nearly four years which ended at the Asia Cup last year.
Interestingly, after 500 matches, Kohli has 76 hundreds to his name which is one more than what Tendulkar had amassed at the same stage of his international career.
The comparisons between the two will continue but West Indies fast bowling legend says it’s not right to compare the two.
“I wouldn’t want to compare both players,” Ambrose told Rev Sportz. “Sachin Tendulkar was a great player, and achieved just about everything in cricket. You can’t take away from his cricketing knowledge and the way he played. I’m not the kind of guy who would like to compare.”
Ambrose played 98 Tests and 176 ODIs for West Indies, taking a combined 630 wickets in them and was regarded as a fierce fast bowler during his playing days.
He also touched upon slump Kohli underwent between November 2019 and August 2022, a period when he failed to score a century in any form of cricket.
“When you’re a great player and going through a lean patch, like Virat Kohli in the last couple of years where he hadn’t scored a century outside India, people tend to look at him and say ‘Oh, he’s over the hill, he’s struggling cause he hasn’t scored a century,’ and all that stuff. It’s unfair,” Ambrose said.
Kohli also ended his overseas century drought when he scored 121 against West Indies during the 2nd Test last week.
“Every great player goes through a patch where they fail to score hundreds or fail to be consistent. He (Kohli) is still a quality player, I’m really happy he got a hundred. Unfortunately, it’s against the West Indies, but that should do his confidence a world of good, and shut up some people who think he is over the hill. He’s not, he still has a lot to contribute to Indian cricket and cricket in general,” Ambrose said.
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