Records in Test matches are falling like nine pins as Indian skipper, Virat Kohli, continues his rich vein of form with the willow. Friday saw his love for breaking records go on to another chapter as Kohli has become the first batsman in the history of Test cricket to register four double centuries in four successive series.
He surpassed this record as he reached his double century in the second session of Day 2. In the process he overtook the joint record of three 200’s held by the legendary Sir Don Bradman (1930-32) and the ‘Wall’ Rahul Dravid (2003-04). Kohli’s streak began on India’s tour to West Indies last year.
However, this is just one of the many records that Kohli has managed to break and the way he is wielding his bat right now; it seems like he will carve his own niche in world cricket that many might struggle to reach.
When he had taken over the reigns from MS Dhoni in the longer format of the game, no one doubted his abilities, but his rather modest Test record at that point was something that needed to be worked upon. Though, he immediately set the records straight as he became the first player to notch up three successive hundreds as a Test captain.
He scored two hundreds on his debut as a captain debut in Adelaide before the ton at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
He also scored the most runs by any visiting Indian batsman in Australia and ended the series with 692 runs. At the end of 2015, Kohli had hundreds, but hadn’t quite converted it into double tons.
But 2016 proved to be the turning phase in Tests for King Kohli and at the end of the year, he had three double hundreds, one each against West Indies, New Zealand and England. This was a sign that Virat Kohli as a Test batsman, had finally arrived on the world stage.
The last year also saw Kohli smashe 133 boundaries in Tests, the most by any Indian captain in a calendar year. He went past Tendulkar’s tally of 131 fours in 1997.
His batting average went past 50 for the first time in Tests and thereby became the first batsman to have an average of 50 or more across three different formats at a given point of time.
Meanwhile. as his recent love for double hundreds continues; only one player now has more two-hundred-plus scores as captain than Kohli’s four and that is Brian Charles Lara. He presently shares the record of four double hundreds with the like of Don Bradman, Graeme Smith, Michael Clarke.
This statistics looks even more astounding when you compare the record of the previous 31 captains for India who have combined together to score only four 200-plus scores.
Virat Kohli now has 9 Test tons as the captain of Indian captain which means that he has equaled Mohammad Azharuddin’s record and is behind only Sunil Gavaskar (11) now.
In another record when Virat Kohli finally fell for 204 the first innings in Hyderabad, he managed to amass 1168 runs and thereby broke the previous record of most runs scored by a batsman overall in a home season (1105 runs by Virender Sehwag in 2004-05). While Sehwag had scored those runs in 17 innings, Kohli did it in only 15 innings.
Kohli’s highest score of 235 in Tests is the highest score by an Indian captain in Tests as he went past MS Dhoni’s 224 against Australia in 2013.
He is also the First Indian Test captain to score a double century in overseas Tests.
Earlier, Kohli also became the 1st Indian to hit 3 double-tons in a calendar year. Before Kohli, only four Indian batsmen had hit 2 - Kambli (1993), Rahul Dravid (2003), Sachin Tendulkar (2004 and 2010) and Virender Sehwag (2008)
Incidentally, another statistic which will leave you in awe is that Kohli has converted all his previous five centuries to a 150-plus score and four of them are now double centuries.
En-route to his hundred against Bangladesh on Day 1 of the ongoing one-off Test he also managed to score hundreds against all the seven Test playing nations. The only one’s not featuring in the list are Pakistan and Zimbabawe against whom he is yet to play a match.
His favorite opponent continues to remain Australia and this is reiterated by the fact that in 12 matches he has scored 1276 runs, with a highest score of 169 and an average of 60.76 and also slammed , slammed 6 tons.
Sometimes players have buckled under the pressure of captaincy but for skipper Kohli statistics paint a completely different picture -
Kohli as captain: 23 Tests, 2261 runs, Average 68.51, 9×100, 4×50. Highest Score- 235.
Other milestones -
First Indian captain to register nine Test wins in a calendar year
First Indian captain to register five successive Test series wins
First Indian to aggregate over 1000 Test runs in a calendar year since Rahul Dravid, who made 1145 runs in 2011
Virat Kohli Last 10 Test Centuries: 204, 235, 167, 211, 200, 103, 147, 169, 141, 115,
