The wait continues as Virat Kohli has once again failed to register his international century. The century draught commences as the ex-Indian skipper monetarily stands in his 100th Test match. His last century came against Bangladesh in 2019 which counts an era of more than two years since Kohli’s last international hundred.
Absolutely, standing in the 100th Test match is worth a record. Kohli has achieved the milestone on 4th March, encountering Sri Lanka in the first game of the two-match series. It makes him the 12th Indian cricketer to enter the 3-digit club. The fans anticipated a top-notch Kohli’s century to make the event more elite, however, there is no speculation when the century-less years-long streak will break.
Scoring 45 off 76 deliveries, Kohli became prey to Lasith Embuldeniya’s deadly delivery that bowled him out. The terrific player could already have achieved the milestone of standing in his 100th match had he not missed the second test versus South Africa due to injury.
It must be noted the player gave up red-ball leadership following the haunts and politics. India vs Sri Lanka Test series is men in blue’s first red-ball arrangement without Kohli as a skipper as Rohit Sharma enjoys the swings of full-time captaincy now. Despite the former captain’s absence from the toss yard, the test game is centred around him following the rare feat he has achieved making history.
No doubt, Virat has been India’s most successful Test captain with the highest winning percentage. In his leadership, team India won 40 out of 68 Tests. Also, he is the only player to exceed an average of 50 in the format. The leadership vs playing combo makes him the greatest Test cricket gurus India have ever produced.
Despite not slamming a hundred, Virat Kohli achieves a bigger milestone
Standing in his 100th Test match and slamming a 45, he has also crossed the 8000 run-mark in the format now having 8007 runs. So far, only five Indian cricketers have crossed the 8000 run-mark in the format.
As far as other Indians who have played 100 or more Test matches are considered, the names of Sachin Tendulkar (200), Rahul Dravid (163), Anil Kumble (132), Kapil Dev (131), Sunil Gavaskar (125), Dilip Vengsarkar (116), Sourav Ganguly (113) and Virender Sehwag (103) are notable. These players have also captained the team in red-ball cricket. However, only Ganguly had been able to maintain a winning percentage of 42.8 since the rest stayed below him.
No doubt, the above-mentioned names have been Indian cricketing giants known among the cricket world, but none of them have met Kohli’s legacy of topping in terms of leadership, as well as sole batting. Unluckily, Kohli stepped down as the skipper on a sudden note, without an ICC trophy.
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