Virat Kohli’s game-winning century against Pakistan at the Dubai International Stadium in the Champions Trophy 2025 has been hailed by former Indian cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu. India won easily by six wickets thanks to Kohli’s tough knock, which unofficially guaranteed the side a spot in the eight-team tournament’s semi-finals.
Along the way to his 51st ODI century, Virat Kohli also achieved some incredible milestones.
He became the fastest hitter to reach 14,000 ODI runs, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar’s long-standing record of 350 innings in the 287th innings. Along with Kumar Sangakkara and Tendulkar, Kohli also became a member of the exclusive group of batsmen who have scored 14,000 ODI runs.
Following a tranquil home Test season in which India played Bangladesh and New Zealand, Kohli’s form came under intense scrutiny. He scored 190 runs in nine innings during the 2024–25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, with 100 of those runs occurring in the second innings of the Perth series opener.
According to Sidhu, the knock against Pakistan might have made it possible to obtain “an additional 10 or 15 hundreds.” With the most recent one against Pakistan being his 81st, Kohli is second only to Tendulkar (100) in terms of the most hundreds in international cricket.
“Character is demonstrated, not created in an emergency. Virat Kohli is a passionate and well-bred individual. And I’m confident that this individual will continue to play for the next two or three years and earn another ten or fifteen hundred after this one hundred. Sidhu told Star Sports, “You take it from me.”
“Because, you see, how someone handles hardship and accepts adversity is the ultimate litmus test for that person. There has been so much going on over the past six months that he picked his moment. For ten years, everyone will remember the runs he scored against Pakistan,” he continued.
Kohli is a man who does everything he can: Sanjay Bangar
Former India cricket player and Sidhu co-panellist Sanjay Bangar praised Kohli for his intention and commitment to the game.
“I believe that his diligence and commitment to the game are more important than the effort I put in. Because he is the kind of guy who does everything possible to prepare. He was aware that he needed to take charge. Sanjay Bangar stated, “You could see it in his body language that he brought that intensity to his game.”
“That fire was blazing there, as you could see by the way his eyes lit up. And yeah, oh boy, he was hungry for runs! With today’s performance, we can categorically state what Navjot Singh Sidhu just stated: three or four more years of playing international cricket. “You get a master class like this if you can maintain that side of standards in terms of execution of pure skill and intent,” he continued.
Sanjay Bangar also evaluated the changes that Kohli made to put an end to the drought and return to his previous level of performance. He emphasized that, in contrast to all of his recent innings, in which he attempted to hit the ball hard, Kohli let the ball come to him.
I believe he waited for today’s ball. He was always on the defensive and didn’t really do much. Being his aggressive self, he waited for the ball to come to him and was prepared to cover the infield as well. However, I noticed that he was playing a lot on the back foot in the first half of his innings when he was up against spin. He then began to come forward after gaining that confidence. To left arm spin and off spin, he stepped forward. He was content to stay back, though, to avoid leg spin. However, as he sort of figured him out, he also began to gain the upper hand. Consequently, begin with the back foot and work your way up to the front foot.
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