Kohli's Test retirement makes Tendulkar's record of 100 centuries 'safe'

New Delhi: If there was one player who was considered worthy of bettering Sachin Tendulkar's record of 100 international hundreds, it was Virat Kohli.

When Tendulkar was asked in an award ceremony after hitting his 100th century who can break his record, he took two names: Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

Within a week, both Rohit and Virat retired from Test format.

Kohli, who quit the Test arena on Monday, is still 18 hundreds away from equalling the incredible milestone and now has just one format to play, may be for a maximum of two years.

In an age when the relevance of the 50-over format is a continuous debate, hitting 19 hundreds in ODIs is a humongous task.

There is a possibility of Kohli featuring in the ODI World Cup to be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia in 2027.

Before that, India is scheduled to play only 27 ODIs which includes a three-match series against Bangladesh in August-September.

It looks Tendulkar's record is 'here to stay'.

Tendulkar scored 51 centuries in 200 Tests and 49 centuries in 463 ODIs.

Kohli hit 30 centuries in 123 Tests, 51 in 302 ODIs and one in 125 T20 games.

Former captain Rohit has scored a total of 49 centuries, including 12 in Tests, 32 in ODIs and five in T20s.

In the list of batsmen who have scored the most centuries in international cricket, after Tendulkar and Kohli, are Australia's Ricky Ponting (71), Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara (63), South Africa's Jacques Kallis (62) and Hashim Amla (55), Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene (54).

Kohli's contemporaries England's Joe Root (53), Australia's Steve Smith (48) and New Zealand's Kane Williamson (48) are also at the fag end of their careers and there is no chance of them even getting close to Tendulkar's record.