Exclusive | Virender Sehwag to India TV: Virat Kohli can break Sachin Tendulkar’s records, will achieve new heights

Former India opener Virender Sehwag has said that Virat Kohli has at least 10 years of cricket left in him and can easily overtake batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar’s record in future. The swashbuckling Sehwag, who has joined India TV as the new cricket expert on its hugely popular show “Cricket Ki Baat”, said people always thought that there would not be another Tendulkar but Kohli has changed this mindset after his arrival.
“We never thought that there would be another Sachin Tendulkar. But Virat Kohli has changed this mindset. I think Virat can surpass Tendulkar’s records,” Sehwag told India TV.

38-year-old Sehwag, who is the first and only Indian batsman to score not one but two triple hundreds in Test cricket, said Kohli is just 28 and has plenty of cricket left in him.
The Indian captain recently hammered his 30th ODI hundred during the tour of Sri Lanka to equal former Australia captain Ricky Ponting’s record. Kohli now ranks below Tendulkar, who had scored 49 ODI hundreds during his long career.
“Virat is just 28-year-old and he will play at least for 10 more years and I think he will create some mega records and can surpass Tendulkar,” Sehwag said.
Recently, Kohli had said that it will take “one hell of an effort” to reach anywhere near Tendulkar’s world record of 49 hundreds.

“The great man (Sachin Tendulkar) is quite a bit away. That’s going to take a hell of an effort. Again, I am not thinking about that. It’s only about the team where even if I score a 90 not out and the team goes across the line, it’s good enough for me,” Kohli had said in Sri Lanka.
Sehwag also revealed that he missed out on the India coach’s job because of the lack of “setting” he had with the BCCI top brass. Sehwag said that he will not apply for the post again.
“Look I couldn’t become the India coach because I didn’t have any setting with those who were in power of appointing the coach,” Sehwag said.
Ravi Shastri, who was being described as the favoured choice of captain Kohli, eventually pipped Sehwag for the top post in July.
“I never thought of coaching the Indian cricket team. I was given an offer to coach the team. The BCCI (acting) secretary Amitabh Chaudhary and GM (Game Development) MV Sridhar came to me and requested me to think about the offer. I took my time and then applied for the position,” Sehwag revealed.