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Former New Zealand fast bowler Tim Southee has once again certified Indian batsman Virat Kohli as the greatest of all time in the One Day International format. This is not the first time that the Kiwi star has expressed his admiration for the batsman.
Tim Southee has made his recent comments on Virat through Kolkata Knight Riders. Southee officially joined the coaching staff of the franchise ahead of the Tata Indian Premier League 2026 (IPL 2026). The New Zealand cricket legend represented the national cricket team in over a hundred Test matches, over 150 ODIs and 120+ T20 Internationals.
Virat Kohli, best ODI player: Tim Southee
“Virat Kohli is the best ODI player ever,” said the former fast bowler, who took more than 700 international wickets across all formats.
During his tenure with the New Zealand national cricket team, Southee has faced one-on-ones against Virat Kohli several times across all formats.
Kohli vs Southee H2H stats across all formats
In the Test, the former fast bowler conceded 133 runs in 276 balls against the Indian batsman and dismissed him thrice. Virat’s batting average in Tests against Tim Southee is 44.3, which is good, as Southee was one of the best in his prime.
In ODI, Southee dismissed Virat by giving 231 runs in 219 balls in 7 matches. The batsman claimed runs at a strike rate of over 105 and averaged 33.0. In T20Is, Southee was slightly ahead of the top-order batsman as per the statistics. In the shortest format of the game, Virat Kohli’s batting average was only 22.00 as he scored only 22 runs in total while facing 19 balls from Southee.
It is clear from the above statistics that whenever these two giants came face to face, they gave a good competition between bat and ball.
The 37-year-old Kohli, who won his second Indian Premier League title with Royal Challengers Bangalore just a few days ago, shows no signs of ageing. He was one of the driving forces that led Bengaluru to glory in two consecutive seasons. In the final, he remained not out to confirm victory against Gujarat Titans in the final.
Virat is struggling with hamstring injury
However, according to media reports, the star batsman has been ruled out of the 3-match ODI series against Afghanistan due to a hamstring injury which he may have sustained during the final match of IPL 2026. The severity of the injury is not yet clear, but there are fears that he could be ruled out for 6 weeks, which means Virat is now unsure even for the ODI series against England.
So far, he has played 311 ODI matches for India and scored 14,797 runs at an average of 58.71. Throughout his ODI career, the Delhi-born player has registered 54 centuries and 77 half-centuries.
Top 5 ODI run-scorers (men’s cricket):
- Sachin Tendulkar – 18,426 runs
- Virat Kohli – 1,4797 runs
- Kumar Sangakkara – 14,234 runs
- Ricky Ponting – 13,704 runs
- Sanath Jayasuriya – 13,430 runs
Read More: Virat Kohli out of England ODI? Official medical bulletin released