Virat Kohli now shares a room with exactly one other person. His unbeaten 139 off 88 balls against West Indies on Sunday pushed him past 15,000 ODI runs — a number only Sachin Tendulkar has reached before him. India chased down 296 with 50 balls to spare, winning by eight wickets and taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. The innings was vintage Kohli in chase mode: arriving at number three after Rohit Sharma fell in the 12th over, building a 151-run partnership with Shubman Gill off 132 balls, then finishing the job with successive boundaries. Gill contributed his 10th ODI century — 110 off 108 — before Roston Chase removed him. Ruturaj Gaikwad helped Kohli close it out without incident. The milestone lands days after Kohli announced he will retire from international cricket after the 2027 50-over World Cup. He has already stepped away from T20 internationals and Test cricket, making the ODI format his final stage. His 86th international century came with the clock explicitly running. West Indies had built a competitive total. Justin Greaves — dropped by Sharma on 16 — punished the reprieve with a maiden ODI century, and he and John Campbell put on 135 for the opening wicket. For 20 overs, India's bowling looked toothless. Then Kuldeep Yadav broke through, dismissing Campbell with a classic spinner's dismissal — beaten in the air, swept to short fine leg. The collapse was swift: four wickets for 22 runs between overs 31 and 36, Yadav finishing with 4-40 on his ODI return. Amir Jangoo's counterattacking 58 off 43 balls, with support from Chase, dragged West Indies to 295 — a total that looked competitive until Kohli and Gill made it look like a net session. What makes this particular milestone resonate is its finality. Tendulkar's 18,426 ODI runs were accumulated over 463 matches spanning 24 years. Kohli is reaching 15,000 while actively winding down, choosing his remaining innings. Every ODI from here until the 2027 World Cup is a numbered performance in a known-finite series. The cricketing achievement is straightforward: sustained elite run-scoring across formats and eras, in conditions ranging from subcontinental turners to pace-friendly wickets in SENA countries. The cultural weight is that Kohli is doing what Tendulkar never cleanly managed — writing his own ending, on terms he selected, with the scoreboard still reading not out.
