While rest of the Indian batsmen succumbed to England’s probing pace, skipper Virat Kohli stepped up to fire his 22nd Test century on Day two of the first Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham. It is also his first Test century in England.
An unbelievable hundred from Virat Kohli. India’s captain leading from the front, and you can tell just what it means from the celebration. What. A. Knock.#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/fNOLVAUzNB
— ICC (@ICC) August 2, 2018
The 29-year old surpassed his previous best score of 39, which he hit in the third Test of the 2014 England tour. Kohli survived an arduous spell by James Anderson and Ben Stokes to hold the Indian innings together. The right-hander thanked his lucky stars as he was dropped twice on a score of 21 and 51 by Dawid Malan at slip.
Kohli has taken 113 innings to reach 22 Test hundreds, the fourth quickest behind Donald Bradman (58), Sunil Gavaskar (101) and Steve Smith (108).
The Indian captain hit 149 off 225 balls to put his past demons on English soil to rest.
Kohli had a disastrous run in the 2014 Test series in England. He could score only 134 runs in 10 innings with at a low average of 13.4. The five-match Test series saw Kohli dismissed six times behind the stumps to a probing off stump line. James Anderson troubled Kohli on the outside off-stump and forced him to nudge the ball back to the slip for four times in the series,
However, after the 2014 tour, Virat Kohli worked on his technique and went on to score six double centuries, 15 hundreds, 3699 runs in the 37 Tests. His six double tons is also the most by a captain.
Source: Zee News