Perth24 minutes agoAuthor: Ashwin Solanki
Virat Kohli scored a century in the second innings of the Perth Test against Australia. He scored a Test century after 16 months and returned to form. This is Virat’s 30th century in Test and 81st in international cricket. This is not the first time that Kohli has made a comeback in Australia. Virat has been doing historic feats in this country since 2012.
Virat had won the T20 World Cup match against Pakistan by hitting the ‘Shot of the Century’ in Australia in 2022. In 2018, Virat also became the first Asian captain to win a Test series in Australia.
Know the story of Virat’s journey of making a comeback from Australia…
2011: Reply to Manjrekar’s statement Kohli made his Test debut in 2011 against West Indies. After this he was also included in the team for the Australia tour. Kohli could score only 41 runs in 4 innings of the first 2 Tests. Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar had then said, give Virat one more test to know whether he fits in this format or not.
The next test took place in Perth, Virat played innings of 44 and 75 runs. He also got a chance in the Adelaide Test, where he scored 116 runs in the first innings. This was his first century in Test. Manjrekar, who talked about ousting Virat in 2012, had to say in 2023 that Kohli is India’s best Test batsman in this generation.
2012: ‘Hobart Hurricane’ came against Sri Lanka Virat made his ODI debut in 2008, till 2011 he had scored 8 centuries in this format. Of these, 7 centuries were spent in Asia; outside Asia, questions were being raised on his technique. After the Test series in 2011-12, the ODI Tri Series was held in Australia itself. Sri Lanka was the third team in the series. Virat could score only 2 fifties in the first 7 matches of the series. Captain MS Dhoni still gave him a chance in the last match of Sri Lanka.
To reach the final, India had to chase the target against Sri Lanka before 40 overs. Sri Lanka scored 320 runs in 50 overs. India lost 2 wickets for 86 runs. Then came 23-year-old Kohli, who scored 133 runs on 86 balls despite having a yorker specialist bowler like Lasith Malinga. On the basis of his innings, India won the match in just 36.4 overs.
Malinga gave 96 runs in 7.4 overs, of which Kohli alone scored 73 runs. Australia named this innings played on Hobart ground as ‘Hobart Hurricane’. Hurricane means storm. With this inning, Kohli started the process of leaving his mark in ODIs.
2014: Scored 4 centuries after a bad tour in England By 2014, Virat Kohli had proved himself in all three formats. The team even made him vice-captain at the age of 25, but then came the England tour. Where Virat could not even score a fifty in 10 innings of 5 tests. He scored 134 runs at an average of just 13.40. English pacer James Anderson dismissed him continuously.
After the end of the England tour in August, the team went to Australia in December. Out of form Virat had to captain in the first test because Dhoni was injured. Kohli capitalized on this opportunity in Adelaide and scored centuries in both the innings. The team had gone to chase the target of 364 runs, but fell apart as soon as Kohli was out for 141 runs.
Dhoni returned in the second test, Virat again scored a century in the third test. He played innings of 169 and 54 runs in Melbourne. Dhoni retired from Test after Melbourne Test, Kohli got full time captaincy. He scored a century in the next test also. Kohli scored 692 runs in 4 Tests, which is the most runs scored by any Indian batsman in a tour of Australia.
2016: Became the best in T-20, reached peak form The 2015 ODI World Cup took place in Australia, Virat did not play against the Kangaroo team in the semi-finals and the team lost. Next year the team again went to Australia, this time to play a white ball series. In 5 ODIs, Virat scored 381 runs by scoring 2 centuries and 2 fifties, but the team lost 4-1.
Virat’s monstrous form was revealed again in T-20. When he played innings of 90, 59 and 50 runs, the team won all the three matches. Virat scored 199 runs in 3 T20s at an average of 199 and strike rate of 160.48. For which he received the Player of the Series award. From here till 2019, Virat ruled in all three formats, in 2017 and 2018 the ICC also gave him the Cricketer of the Year award.
2018: Became the best test captain In 2017, Virat got the captaincy of all three formats, in 2018 the team went on England tour for the first time under his captaincy. The team lost 4-1 in 5 tests, after which questions started being raised on his captaincy. The England tour ended in September and the team once again reached Australia in December. Kangaroo pacer Pat Cummins said that Virat will not be able to score a single century this time.
Virat could score only 282 runs in 4 Tests, but he played an inning of 123 runs on a difficult pitch in Perth. Australian experts also called it one of the best century. Virat has also said in an interview that this is the best innings of his Test career.
Virat’s real feat was visible in his captaincy on the tour, when the team won the series 2-1. This was the first Test series win in Australia by any Asian team in cricket history. Virat became the first captain of Asia to do so. After which, in 2020, ICC also selected Virat as the captain of the best Test team of the decade.
2021: Great feat of ‘Kohli’s team’ In 2018, the Australian team was without two big batsmen Steve Smith and David Warner. In 2021, both the players made a comeback and Australia became very strong. Team India went on Australia tour in December, but Kohli was going to play only one Test. He had to return to India due to family reasons.
Kohli scored 78 runs in the first test, the team could score only 36 runs in the second innings and lost the test. Questions were raised that Kohli should not leave the team in difficult situations, but by then captain Virat had prepared a team which could win anywhere. Ajinkya Rahane captained Virat and the team once again won the series 2-1.
In 2011, Team India became number-1 in the Test rankings for the first time. In 2014, when Virat took over the captaincy, the team reached number 7. In 2017, Virat made a comeback for the team and then reached number-1. The team again remained number-1 in Tests till 2021. Virat left the captaincy in 2022 and the team is at number-2 since then.
2022: Form returned with ‘Shot of the Century’ Cricket matches were reduced in 2020 due to the Corona epidemic. Kohli, who was in his peak form till 2019, was out of form. He could not score a single century in all three formats in 2020 and 2021. On 8 September 2022, he again ended the century drought after 1021 days by scoring a T-20 century against Afghanistan. However, he still did not appear to be in form.
The T20 World Cup was to be held in 2022, whose venue was the same which Kohli had made his second home ground. India’s first match was against Pakistan in Melbourne Stadium, Australia. The team got the target of 161 runs, but India lost 4 wickets for 31 runs. Kohli was persistent, he remained till the end, but at one time the team needed 48 runs from 18 balls.
Kohli started playing his shots from the 18th over, but 28 runs were required from 8 balls. Haris Rauf had given only 3 runs on 4 balls of the 19th over. He bowled the fifth ball short pitch, Kohli hit a six on the back foot in the front direction. This shot was so reliable that ICC named it ‘Shot of the Century’. Kohli scored 82 runs and India almost won the lost match.
In the T-20 World Cup, Kohli scored 296 runs by hitting 4 fifties and returned to form. After this tournament, Virat also scored centuries in Test and ODI. In 2023, he also won the Player of the Tournament award by scoring 765 runs in the ODI World Cup.
2024: Kohli’s form disappeared again In 2024, Kohli was once again out of form. Before coming to Australia, he could score only 250 runs in 6 tests. He was able to score only one fifty in ODI and T-20. The only positive thing for Virat after his poor form was that he was going on Australia tour.
The Perth Test began on 22 November. India won the toss and chose to bat and Virat was out after scoring only 5 runs. Then it seemed that perhaps Virat would not be able to make a comeback in Australia this time, but in the second innings, Virat proved it wrong. He scored 100 runs with 8 fours and 2 sixes and took the team to 487 runs.
Scored 12th international century in Australia Virat scored his 30th century in his Test career. He has overtaken Australia’s Sir Donald Bradman in terms of most Test centuries. Virat scored his 7th Test century in Australia, he also became the Indian to score the most Test centuries here.
Virat likes to play cricket in Australia, he likes the fast and bouncy pitches here. Therefore, in the 14 tests played here, 1457 runs were scored at an average of 56.03. These include 7 centuries and 4 fifties. Not only this, he has also scored 1327 ODI and 747 T20 runs in Australia. Including all three formats, he has 12 centuries in his name in Australia, which is the highest among foreign players.
Scored his 9th Test century against Australia Virat also likes to play cricket against Australia. Kohli has scored 2147 runs in 26 tests against Australia. He has more fifties than centuries against Australia. He has scored 9 centuries and 5 fifties. Of which 2 centuries were scored in India, while 7 centuries came in Australia.
Australia preferred in ODI and T-20 also In the white ball format, Kohli likes Australia the most after Pakistan, Virat scores a lot of runs against both of them. In 49 ODIs against the Kangaroo team, he has scored 2367 runs by scoring 8 centuries. Whereas in 23 T-20 matches, he has scored 794 runs with 8 fifties.
