Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar feels it never seemed that Virat Kohli was out of form in Test cricket after he scored a magnificent knock of 186 runs in the first innings of the fourth Test match against Australia at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
Kohli had last scored a Test hundred back in 2019 in the pink-ball Test match against Bangladesh at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Since then, Kohli was getting off to start but he wasn’t able to convert his score into a substantial one.
The talisman was finally able to break the deadlock as he reached the three-digit mark in the red-ball version after 1205 days. In fact, Kohli was beaten on multiple occasions in the nascent stage of his innings by Nathan Lyon but looked in control after settling at the crease.
This is Kohli’s 28th Test century and his 75th International hundred. Furthermore, Kohli’s 186 is now his best score against Australia in Test cricket, beating his previous best of 169, which he scored at the MCG on the 2014-15 tour.
Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports, “Every great batter thinks about a hundred. A century is a minimum price he keeps for his wicket. The way Kohli was batting in the last two-and-a-half years when he didn’t score a century, he was batting well, scored seven or eight fifties.”
He added: “So it never seemed that he was out of form. The only thing that was happening was that he was getting out on his first mistake.”
The Little Master added Kohli constructed his innings beautifully as he rotated strike at regular intervals.
“It was like how a Test match century should be constructed. He started slightly slowly, where he was trying to figure out the pitch and the bowling. Then he played a few shots after getting set and tried to play even more shots after he had scored a century.”
Kohli only scored five fours before reaching the three-digit mark and Gavaskar added it showed how determined the right-hander was to get to a hundred.
“It shows how determined he was. He knew that India were quite far behind Australia, who had scored a mountain of runs. 480 runs is a big score. So India had to reach near that score.”
“He had seen that Usman Khawaja played a 180-run knock and Cameron Green scored a century for Australia, and Shubman Gill played a 128-run knock. This was a good opportunity for him to play a big knock so that the Indian team reaches close to 480 and then they can put a little pressure on Australia tomorrow after crossing 480.”
