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Virat Kohli retired from Test cricket in May 2025 having already stepped away from T20Is the previous year. What remains is ODI cricket and one number, 100.
He sits on 85 international centuries right now, 54 of them in ODIs, 30 in Tests and 1 in T20Is. The Tests are done, the T20Is are done, and the remaining fifteen centuries he needs to reach the most celebrated milestone in batting history have to come in fifty-over cricket alone.
The question is whether the schedule between now and the ODI World Cup 2027 gives Virat Kohli enough opportunities to get there.
What the ODI schedule actually offers
The confirmed and expected ODI calendar between now and the World Cup gives Kohli somewhere between 21 and 24 bilateral matches before the tournament itself begins.
India host West Indies in September and October for three ODIs, travel to England in July for three, host Sri Lanka in December for three, host Zimbabwe in January 2027 for three across Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai, and will play Afghanistan at home and New Zealand away in windows either side of those series.
The two series that matter most for 100th international century milestone
Sri Lanka at home in December 2026 is the window Kohli's supporters will be watching most carefully.
He has scored ten ODI centuries against them already, more than against any other opposition, and the venues of Delhi, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad are conditions he knows and has historically thrived in.
If there is a series where two or three centuries arrive in quick succession it is this one. Zimbabwe in January 2027 is a different kind of opportunity. Kohli has not played an ODI against Zimbabwe in over a decade and has just one century against them, scored back in 2013.
Three home games in Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai against a developing bowling attack represent exactly the kind of series where a batter in form can accelerate a milestone chase significantly.
Also READ: BCCI announces India's 2026–27 home schedule: BGT leads 5 Tests, 9 ODIs and 8 T20Is
What if India reaches the ODI World Cuo 2027 final
A handful of pre-World Cup bilateral matches are also expected in the early months of 2027. Add an eleven-match World Cup run if India reach the final, the tournament is hosted across South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia and Kohli is looking at somewhere between 32 and 35 innings to score 15 or 16 centuries.
That works out to roughly one hundred every two to two and a half innings, which at his peak was not unusual. Whether he is still operating at that frequency is the real question.
What Virat Kohli's recent ODI form suggests
The most encouraging sign for anyone backing Kohli to get there is his form going into this period.
Three centuries in his last seven ODI innings is a return to something close to his best, and his decision to retire from the other formats means he arrives at every ODI now without the accumulated fatigue of a full international programme.
That is a meaningful difference for a 37-year-old. He is not splitting his preparation and recovery across three formats anymore, every training session, every net, every recovery day is pointed at fifty-over cricket.
Whether that singular focus translates into the kind of sustained century-scoring run the milestone requires is what the next eighteen months will reveal.
The schedule is there. The form is there. Fifteen centuries in roughly thirty-five innings from one of the greatest ODI batters the game has produced is a stretch, but it is not an impossible one.
