Legendary Sachin Tendulkar was in awe of Team India talisman Virat Kohli after he made history in the first ODI against Sri Lanka in Guwahati on Tuesday.

Virat Kohli struck his 45th ODI hundred off 80 deliveries before being dismissed for an 87-ball 113 at the fag-end of the Indian innings. It was his second consecutive ton in the 50-over format. Just a month earlier, Virat Kohli had hit a century against Bangladesh in Chattogram.

After Virat Kohli hit his 73rd three-figure score in international cricket, Sachin Tendulkar heaped rich praise on the premier India batter.

“Keep doing great like this. Keep illuminating the name of India,” Sachin Tendulkar wrote on Twitter. “Splendid batting performance by the top order!”

Within hours, Sachin Tendulkar's tweet, lauding Virat Kohli's efforts on the field, went viral on the microblogging platform.

Since being posted barely six hours ago, it has already received nearly 800K views and 55K likes besides being retweeted around 4,000 times.

 

Notably, Sachin Tendulkar's special message for Virat Kohli came after the 34-year-old batter broke many of his records on his way to his 45th century against Sri Lanka.

Among the major Sachin Tendulkar world records, Virat Kohli shattered during his sensational innings against Lankan Lions was to become the fastest to reach 45 centuries and 12,500 runs in One-Day Internationals.

While Sachin Tendulkar needed 424 innings to complete 45 tons in ODIs, the Delhi-born batter only required 257 knocks to get there. Additionally, Virat Kohli achieved 12,500 runs in 257 ODI innings, ahead of the Little Master who did it in 310.

Virat Kohli also has the most centuries in international cricket as a non-opener.

Besides the above-mentioned milestones, he became the first man to score at least nine tons against two different teams in ODI cricket.

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Previously, both Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar had 9 tons each against West Indies and Australia respectively. The legendary cricketers had collected 8 hundreds each against Sri Lanka as well. But with his century against Dasun Shanaka and his men, Virat Kohli now stands alone in the list with 9 centuries against both Sri Lanka and West Indies.

The 34-year-old matched Sachin Tendulkar's record of making the most number of centuries on home soil as well. Both Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli now have 20 tons each in India.

The number of knocks Virat Kohli took to reach there though was far less compared to Sachin Tendulkar. While Little Master needed 160 innings to hit 20 centuries in ODIs at home, the India No.3 accomplished the feat in only 99 knocks.

Meanwhile, cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar backed Virat Kohli to overtake Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 centuries in ODI cricket.

“I have no doubt that he will overtake Sachin Tendulkar in one-day hundreds. The Test hundreds, that would be a big mountain to climb. In this format, he is an all-time great, not to say that he is not a Test match great. He just needs 4 hundreds to equal Tendulkar in ODIs whereas, in Tests, Tendulkar has 51 hundreds. I hope he carries that ambition and aspiration to get there. But 49, I am sure may be will happen in a year and a half,” Sanjay Manjrekar said.

“See what’s happened in the last couple of years, we have been talking that Virat Kohli has been out of form. He has been getting the one big knock which has promoted celebrations and talks like ‘King is back’ and that Kohli has found his mojo. And then what happens is there would be another run of low scores, then another good innings would come.”

“Today (on Tuesday), the passion was there, the smile was back when he was celebrating the hundred. I got the impression that he wanted this badly, for the form to stay with him, not just one innings and then getting out for 3-4 innings.”

“This is two consecutive hundreds, which is a great sign. For the greats of Indian batting like Kohi and Tendulkar, hundreds came one after the other,” Sanjay Manjrekar elaborated.

After the match, an ecstatic Virat Kohli said that he was pleased with his form with the bat.

“My preparation and intent always stay the same and I just kept backing my intent. As I said during the mid-innings break, it was very close to the template I play with. I also understood we needed an extra 25-30 runs. The only thing I learnt was desperation doesn't get you anywhere. You have to play for the right reasons and almost play every game like your last and just be happy about it. The game is going to move on and I'm happy with my space,” he said at the post-match presentation ceremony.