West Indies: Virat Kohli is on the verge of breaking an international cricket record in his landmark game. In the second Test match against the West Indies at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad, the former Indian captain is currently playing in his 500th international game, becoming the 10th player in the history of cricket to reach the milestone and the third from India.

And after closing Day 1 of the match unbeaten on 87, which helped revive India to 288 for four, he is now just 13 runs away from becoming the first cricketer to ever hit a century in his 500th international match.

The 34-year-old Kohli was on the verge of adding another feather to his already crowded cap when West Indies icon Courtney Walsh heaped him with lofty praise and compared him to players like Sachin Tendulkar and Javed Miandad of Pakistan.

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The former West Indies fast bowler acknowledged that Kohli, who he compared to England's Graham Gooch and Miandad, is undoubtedly one of the top five cricketers of all time, but ranked him second only to Sachin among the finest players from India.

"Well, as an Indian great, I would rate him just behind Sachin. Sachin is one of the greatest I have seen and played against," Walsh told JioCinema.

"Brian Lara, Viv Richards, I will put them up from a West Indian point of view. Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh. Two gentleman I played when I was a youngster. There are also Graham Gooch from England and Javed Miandad, against whom I probably did not as much games, but the value they put on their wickets reminded me of Virat Kohli as well. He doesn't want to go. So I will definitely have him in my top 4, top 5 greatest cricketers I have seen," he added.

The team's campaign in the third WTC cycle was launched in impressive form with an unbeaten 87 by Kohli, who also scored 76 in India's innings triumph over West Indies last week in Dominica. This was Kohli's second consecutive fifty-plus score on the tour.

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Walsh remembered a conversation he had with Kohli when the West Indies selector was in charge, saying that even then, he could see greatness in the young cricketer.

Later in his remarkable career, Kohli reached new heights by playing 111 Tests for India and collecting over 9500 runs, as well as 274 ODI and 115 T20I appearances and scoring 12898 and 4008 runs, respectively.

"He has got the passion for the game, he wants to leave a mark in the game. I remember having a conversation with him when I was the selector for West Indies, and he was the captain. We were having a chat. You could tell that he wants to be the best. He was willing to seek out advice from anyone that will help to do so. I am not surprised by the achievement. The passion he has and the drive he has to be the top 3, top 5 in everything he does," Walsh said.

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