Michael Holding reckons Virat Kohli has long way to go to beat Sachin Tendulkar's 100 hundreds

New Delhi: Run-machine Virat Kohli is the talk of the town. The India captain on Sunday overtook Aussie great Ricky Ponting to become the second highest century maker in ODIs.

But he still is 19 short of Sachin Tendulkar's record 49. The batting maestro has another 51 tons in Test cricket, thus making him the only player in the history of the game to have a century of centuries. But at the rate at which Kohli is compiling hundreds, many belived the he will soon eclipse Master Blaster's record.

Legendary West Indian fast bowler Michael Holding on Wednesday joined this debate, and opined "There is a long long way to go (before Kohli gets close to Tendulkar's record)." But Holding said that Kohli "is certainly a great batsman."

Besides his 30 ODI hundreds, Kohli has another 17 in Tests. These hundreds have come in quick time, in contrast to Tendulkar's. Tendulkar took 200 matches to score his 51 hundreds and another 463 for his 49 ODI tons.

Kohli's 17 Test tons have come in just 60 games. But his ODI record is just astounding. He has played 194 of those and now he already second in the all-time list.

But again, like any other astute observer of the game, Holding denied to compare the two and said, he doesn't like like comparisons.

It's worth noting that Kohli, after the fifth ODI match between Sri Lanka and India at Colombo on Sunday, had said that it will take 'one hell of an effort' to reach anywhere near Tendulkar's world record of hundred hundreds.

Holding, who recently a subject of Brian Lara's criticism for his infamous stump kicking incident during West Indies' 1980 tour of New Zealand, said that Indian cricket team under Kohli will still need to win matches outside the sub-continent to claim the honours of world beaters.

"I don't know. They have to do it to prove it. The proof of the cake is in the eating. So we will just have to wait and see what they do (outside the sub-continent). You can't predict these things," Holding said.

India have now won eighth Test series in a row, but will come up against strong South African and English sides in overseas outings, where the team's ability will be tested to the core.

India recently whitewashed Sri Lanka in a three-match series. Kohli & Co then completed another blanking of the Lankans in the five-match ODI series.

The tour culminates today with the lone T20I match in Colombo, with the prospect of equalling Australia's record of complete series whitewash of Pakistan in 2010. In the tour, Aussies blanked Pakistan 9-0, winning all three series across all all formats.