Kohli gets his half-century of centuries
Kolkata: India skipper Virat Kohli showed his true class again today after he scored an unbeaten century (104*) against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens before he decided to declare the innings to give the bowlers a chance to bowl the visitors out on the final day of play. In the first innings, Kohli went back to the pavilion for a duck but he didn’t disappoint his team and the fans in the second innings today.
It would be regarded as one of the finest knock of the India skipper as the Lankan pacers took back to back wickets on the final morning. After scoring his 18th century in Test cricket he equaled the record of legendary Sunil Gavaskar in terms of Test centuries scored by an Indian captain.
Both of them now has 11 Test tons as India skipper, which is the highest by any Indian captain. After them is Mohammed Azharuddin is holding the second spot who has 9 centuries under his belt, followed by Sachin Tendulkar who had 7 hundreds during his captaincy.
Former India skipper MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly and Mansur Ali Khan Patuadi all had 5 Test tins in their kitty as captains of the team.
Kohli not only hit his 18th Test ton today, but it was also his maiden Test ton at the Eden Gardens.
Beside this, it was the India skipper’s 50th international century. In the list of most number of centuries, Kohli sits at number eighth behind Brian Lara (53), Mahela Jayawardene (54), Hashim Amla (54), Jacques Kallis (62), Kumar Sangakkara (63) Ricky Ponting (71) and iconic Sachin Tendulkar (100), who is the only cricketer to get 100 international hundreds.
With 18 Test hundreds to his name, Kohli has now gone ahead of legendary Dilip Vengsarkar (17) but is still behind Mohammed Azharuddin (22), Virender Sehwag (23), Sunil Gavaskar (34), Rahul Dravid (36) and Tendulkar (51).
The Indian skipper also joined South African great Hashim Amla as the fastest batsman to hit 50 centuries in international cricket in 348 innings.
Most Test centuries as IND captain: –
1. Kohli/Gavaskar: 11
2. Azharuddin: 9
3. Tendulkar: 7
4. Dhoni/Ganguly/MAK Pataudi: 5
5. Dravid: 4