There is no denying the fact that the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli will be stealing a lot of limelight on his return to the action for the first time since he took paternity leave after the first of a 4-Test series in Australia. Kohli, who is a father now, will be looking forward to ending his hundred-less run when he takes on England, who has become one of his favorite foes in the recent past.
Virat Kohli hasn’t scored a Test century in the last 13 months, a rare blip for someone who has amassed 27 centuries in 87 matches. He had a difficult outing in New Zealand during India’s 2-0 series defeat. However, Kohli showed signs of getting his form back when he played a fluent knock of 74 in the first innings of the Adelaide Test which India eventually lost by 8 wickets.
Kohli will be eyeing leave an impression of himself in the upcoming series against England. If recent records are anything to go by, one can expect a run-fest from him. Virat Kohli was the highest run-scorers in the last 2 series against England.
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Apart from his failure in 2014 in the English conditions, Virat has been successful in most of the series. He worked on his weakness against the moving ball. During the 2018 trip to England, Kohli buried the ghosts of the 2014 series and went on to score 593 runs in 5 matches, including 2 hundred.
However, Virat Kohli needs 489 runs to go past Sunil Gavaskar’s tally for the most runs scored at home against England in the longest format. Kohli is at the 6th spot on the Indian list with a tally of 843 runs in 9 games. Cheteshwar Pujara is not far behind with 839 runs and the in-form India batsman also has the opportunity to break Gavaskar’s record. Pujara holds the record for most hundreds by an Indian batsman at home against England in Tests with 4, 1 more than Kohli.
Most runs scored against England in home Tests
- Sunil Gavaskar – 1331 runs in 22 matches
- Gundappa Viswanath – 1022 runs in 17 matches
- Sachin Tendulkar – 960 runs in 15 matches
- Vijay Manjrekar – 885 runs in 11 matches
- ML Jaisimha – 843 runs in 10 matches
- Virat Kohli – 843 runs in 9 matches
- Cheteshwar Pujara – 839 runs in 9 matches
Meanwhile, Kohli will also be looking to break the record of Ricky Ponting’ for most hundreds as captain in home Tests. Ponting had finished his career with 11 centuries and 3,555 runs as captain while Kohli has already amassed 10 hundred 2.699 runs in home Tests being the leader.
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Most hundreds as captain in home Tests
- Ricky Ponting – 11 centuries in 39 matches
- Greg Chappell – 10 centuries in 33 matches
- Virat Kohli – 10 centuries in 26 matches
- Steve Smith – 10 centuries in 20 matches
- Don Bradman – 9 centuries in 15 matches
