Former India captain Virat Kohli has left behind a rut in Test cricket by scoring a century after as many as 1,205 days. Kohli, whose last Test hundred had come against Bangladesh during India’s inaugural day-night Test match at the Eden Gardens on 23/11/2019, achieved a personal feat on the fourth day of the fourth Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 Test match in Ahmedabad today.
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In what is Kohli’s 28th Test century, it is his 24 at No. 4, 14th at home, eighth against the Aussies and as a specialist batter and first at the Narendra Modi Stadium and under Rohit Sharma (35).
An elephantine sigh of relief for both Kohli and his fans came on the second ball of the 139th over when the right-handed batter nudged a Nathan Lyon delivery on the leg-side to run a single and reach the 100-run mark.
Much like the time duration since his last Test century, Kohli made his bountiful fans to wait before completing the milestone on the 241st ball that he faced in this innings. Batting at a strike rate in vicinity of 40 for most part of this knock, Kohli never looked to hurry his way out of a lean patch even on a pitch which is highly conducive for batting.
Perhaps realizing that this to be the easiest of pitches that he’s batted on in this format in the recent years, Kohli didn’t let his ego come in between him and a century whilst also pushing the team to gain a first-innings lead in the match. The fact that Kohli hit only five fours before reaching the three-figure mark speaks highly about him being absolutely patient since yesterday.
Virat Kohli 75th century celebration video
Unlike his younger days, Kohli didn’t jump, yell or swear to celebrate his 75th century in international cricket. The 34-year old player was very subdued in his celebrations on Sunday.
Virat Kohli today century image of kissing locket
Kohli, who has visited a lot of temples and religious places of late, had traveled from Indore (venue for the third Test) to Ujjain to pray at the Mahakaleshwar temple before reaching Ahmedabad for this match. Kohli’s century celebration also consisted of him kissing a locket (presumably a religious one).
As was the case after Kohli regained form in both limited-overs formats in the recent months, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he follows this century with more similar knocks in the near future.
