Despite having scored mere two half-centuries in his Test career till that point, former India skipper Sourav Ganguly had expressed his desire that Virat Kohli be quickly moved up the batting order, after the latter had played a brilliant half-century knock of 75 (136) against Australia at Perth in 2012.
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Batting at No .6 in the order during the entire tour of 2011/12 Down Under, Ganguly had made the aforementioned statement despite taking into consideration that the ones who batted above him included names like VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, and Rahul Dravid.
In fact, after Kohli had played the above mentioned knock, Ganguly had went on to remark how his heart had desired for the former to get to his maiden Test hundred considering how India needed a youngster to take the team forward in the format.
Sourav Ganguly was desirous of Virat Kohli to score maiden Test century in Perth
On the back of twin half-centuries at the Wankhede Stadium during India’s preceding home Test series against the West Indies in 2011, Kohli had made it to India’s playing XI during the challenging Australia tour of 2011/12, ahead of the likes of Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma who had preformed well in the domestic circuit.
So, after Kohli had scored a half-century during the third Test match on a challenging surface at Perth, especially post returning with average numbers during the first two Tests of the tour, Ganguly perhaps had sensed that India might have just have found the face which would take the team to where it belonged.
“That’s the way to go. You need to have young players and you want your young players to perform. I was wishing sitting in the commentary box that he gets a hundred, because that would be the way forward for Indian Cricket,” Ganguly remarked at ESPN Star Sports post Kohli’s innings.
He had also, during the interaction, hoped Kohli would better his performance during the last Test match of the tour in Adelaide, which would have offered a much better surface for the batters.
Kohli hits his maiden Test hundred at the Adelaide Oval
Much to Ganguly’s and Kohli’s delight, he eventually did smash his maiden Test century during the fourth match at Adelaide Oval, and would return back after scoring 116 (213) runs with the help of 11 Fours and a Six.
However, it was his innings at Perth which Kohli would later go on to term as a “game-changer” with respect to his career, as he was absolutely certain to lose a place in the side in case his bat did not do the talking.
He ended the four-match Test series as India’s highest-run getter, and overall at the third spot with 300 runs across 8 innings, after Michael Clarke (626 runs in six innings) and Ricky Ponting (544 runs in six innings).
