Virat Kohli Time Periods as No.1 Ranked ODI Batter: Indian cricket's star batsman Virat Kohli has recently regained the number-1 position in the ICC ODI batting rankings on the basis of his excellent form. This comeback happened on 14 January 2026, when he played a explosive inning of 93 runs during the first ODI against New Zealand in Vadodara and led Team India to victory. Earlier, he had reached the top after the year 2021. At the same time, Virat captured the top of the ODI batting rankings for the first time in October 2013. After which he has achieved this feat many times.
Virat Kohli has been number-1 on a total of 1547 days during his ODI career. Virat has been the number-1 batsman in the ODI rankings for 1257 consecutive days. He did this between the year 2017 and 2021. He also holds the record of remaining number-1 ODI batsman for the longest period among Indian batsmen, which places him at third place in the history of the world. In this list, the great West Indies batsman Vivian Richards is at number one, who spent a total of 2,306 days at the top during his career.
However, ICC made a big mistake while announcing the rankings. In the official post, he had given the total number of days of Virat being number-1 as 825, whereas the correct figure is 1547 days. In this list, he reduced Virat's total days by 722 days. Seeing this mistake, there was an uproar among fans and cricket lovers on social media. Many users tagged ICC and raised questions as to how such a mistake could happen in such a big record. Upon realizing the mistake, ICC soon admitted its mistake and removed the wrong post.
Correcting the mistake, ICC wrote, 'The former India captain first reached the top of the ODI batting rankings in October 2013 and has now spent a total of 1547 days at number 1, which is the most by any Indian batsman. He is third in the all-time list, which is topped by West Indies great Vivian Richards, who remained at the top position for 2,306 days.
