Cricketer Virat Kohli and records seem to have become synonymous. The Indian skipper is on the threshold of another record when he leads his team Saturday on to the field against South Africa in the third and final Test of the series at Ranchi.
In the second Test at Visakhapatnam, Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 254 in the only innings India batted. It was Kohli’s 19th century as captain and took him to the joint second position in the list of captains with the maximum number of Test centuries. Kohli is now tied with former Australian skipper Ricky Pointing, who also has 19 tons as captain. The man who heads the list is former South African captain Graeme Smith with 25 Test tons. Third in the list are two Australians – Alan Border and Steve Smith – who both have 15 Test hundreds against their names. The legendary Sir Donald Bradman has 14 centuries as captain but remember he only played 52 Tests.
So if Virat Kohli gets another century in the Ranchi game, it will be his 20th Test ton as captain and will catapult him into sole second position ahead of Ricky Ponting. The way the Indian skipper is batting at the moment, such a feat is definitely on the cards.
When he scored his seventh Test double hundred at Visakhapatnam, the Indian skipper also completed 7,000 runs in Test cricket. In the process he went past Dilip Vengsarkar (6868), Sir Len Hutton (6971), Sanat Jayasuriya (6973), Bradman (6996) and Andrew Strauss (7037). Hence Virat Kohli has been on a roll in the recent past as far as scoring runs in all the three formats of the game is concerned.
With predecessor Mahendra Singh Dhoni confirming that he will be present at Ranchi to watch his mates in action, it may just be the right motivation for Kohli to notch up another three-figure score.
PNN & Agencies