Virat Kohli’s 100th Test was a matter of “when” and not “if”. With the former India captain on the threshold of this landmark 100th Test match, to be played against Sri Lanka in Mohali from February 4, one needs to step back and take a look at the Delhi youngster who caught public eye as the India Under-19 captain, not just for his cricket but also his antics.
But the time Kohli made his Test debut in 2011, people already knew him – this brash and aggressive young batsman, who never fell short of letting his emotions overtake him on any stage, ready to give as much as he got, and more.
What made him the star however was not just his body language. It was his ability to follow it up with performances on all platforms, so it was only a matter of time before he was playing for India in whites.
The opportunity came in 2011, in the West Indies, when Kohli was part of a rather patchwork Indian side, with many of the top players not it the squad that went to the Caribbean.
Kohli’s debut, at the Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica, was not stuff for fairy tales. He was a part of some raw batsmen up the order, including Abhinav Mukund and Murali Vijay.
It was in the 2011-12 series in Australia that Kohli came to the foreground. The Aussies, always a hard bunch, handed down a nightmare 0-4 thrashing to India, the narrowest margin of loss being 122 runs, while two out of the four Tests were innings wins for the hosts.
Young Kohli was also in the headlines for his rather petulant exchanges on the field with the vociferous Australian crowd.
But in all of that, Kohli also scored a century at Adelaide in the last Test – the only Indian batsman to get one in that series. Even the Aussies had to admit, albeit grudgingly, that this kid could play.
Virat Kohli Test record:
Matches: 99
Inn: 168
Not out: 10
Runs: 7962
Highest score: 254
100s: 27
50s: 28
(All records till before the beginning of the 2022 Sri Lanka series)
As is evident from Kohli’s record, once he crosses 50, more often than not, he reaches triple figures almost 50 per cent of the time.
However, a century has eluded Kohli for a while now, since November, 2019, to be exact, in any format and that has become quite the talking point.
Add to that the rather unsavoury manner in which he was removed as India’s captain in the limited-overs formats and then his giving up of the Test captaincy as well. It has not been a happy time for the in-your-face batter.
The Mohali Test, and the one following in Bengaluru, are yet another stage for Kohli to show his talent.
Now that he has lost captaincy, there is no saying when the axe may come – Indian cricket has never been kind to senior cricketers. Here onward, Virat Kohli will always be under the scanner. One would like to believe that the fighter in him will keep swinging and when the time comes, will stride out like the colossus he is.
