(Image source: X.com)
[Saba Sports News] Former England captain Nasser Hussain stated that India’s focus right now should be on winning the World Cup and not Virat Kohli’s 49th ODI century.
For the unversed, Kohli have hit 48 ODI tons and another hundred will tie him with Sachin Tendulkar’s record tally of 49 ODI centuries.
Kohli came close to achieving this on Thursday in the match against Sri Lanka where he scored an 88-run knock and fell just 12 short of equalling Tendulkar’s glorious record.
It would have been fitting had Kohli accomplished this at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai where the Master Blaster was himself present to watch the game.
However, Hussain feels that till the World Cup, Kohli needs to find a way to shut this noise, citing how Tendulkar was under enormous pressure in the time period between his 99th and 100th international century.
“Anything I would say about it is winning the World Cup is the most important thing. He will get the 49, he will get the 50th. He will probably get a 100 international hundreds, he is that good. But the more important thing is winning the World Cup. India must not build it up to be about his 49th,” Nasser Hussain said as quoted to Star Sports.
“I remember Sachin had spoken about it, the only time he really felt the enormity of who he was when going from 99 to 100, the person in the room service before he hung up asked him ‘are you going to get your 100th today’?” he added.
“He hid himself from the noise, he shut out the noise and the only time he could hear the noise was from 99 to 100. So, I just hope that Virat can hide away from that noise, just for a few weeks longer.”
Meanwhile, India have qualified for the semis of the 2023 World Cup after beating Sri Lanka by 302 runs. The Men in Blue still have two league matches left and they will play against South Africa and the Netherlands on November 5 and 12 respectively.