The wait has ended. Three years and four months later, Virat Kohli has gotten the monkey off his back by scoring his 28th Test century in the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. This is Kohli’s first Test century since November 23, 2019 – and after 1205 days – which finally puts an end to the former India captain’s unusually long wait for a three-figure score. Last year, Kohli snapped his century-less streak with a hundred each in T20Is and ODIs, and then added a 74th earlier this year against Sri Lanka in an ODI. And today, on a bright and sunny Day 4 of the Ahmedabad Test, Kohli finally buried the ghosts of his torrid run in Tests with a century that he will remember for a long time.
This is also Kohli’s first 50-plus score since January of 2022 – where he scored 79 against South Africa in Cape Town. With this knock, Kohli has replicated a special feat, one that the legendary Sunil Gavaskar achieved 40 years ago. Playing his 50th Test at home in 1983, Gavaskar scored a century, while batting at No. 4. Surprisingly enough, this too is Kohli’s 50th Test on home soil, and like Gavaskar, he celebrated it with a century. The only difference in that was Gavaskar scored his 14th ton at home, while Kohli enjoyed his 13th. This is also Kohli’s 8th Test century against Australia, tying Gavaskar for the joint second-most tons by an Indian player against the Aussies, next only to Sachin Tendulkar.
Virat Kohli began the session positively but later went into a shell
It is worth noting that virat Kohli did not score a single boundary in the first two sessions – it came after he completed his century with a crisp straight drive off Mitchell Starc in the 142nd over. On the best batting pitch of the series, Kohli was a tad under pressure, but then grew in confidence. There were a couple of nervy moments both Day 3 and 4 – he was squared up by a turning delivery from Matthew Kuhnemann and overcame a couple of LBW shouts with the impact clearly being outside off.
Kohli remained unbeaten on 88 at lunch, having faced 220 deliveries. Scoring at a strike-rate of 40 is not one would usually associate with Kohli but such is the situation of the game. With India in no rush, Kohli was happy to bide his time as India scored 73 runs off 32 overs losing one wicket – that of Ravindra Jadeja. After lunch though, the pace of the innings picked up. KS Bharat switched gears and launched Cameron Green for 6, 6, and 4 in a 21-run over – the costliest of the series. This meant that Kohli remained content as he dealt in singles to carefully thread through the 90s.
With Kohli on 98, India lost their fifth wicket with KS Bharat inside edging the ball onto his pads and in the air for Peter Handscomb to complete an easy catch at forward short leg, but that didn’t deter Kohli as in the next two overs, he nudged a couple of singles to complete his 75th international ton, raise his bat, take his helmet off and soak in the electric atmosphere of the stadium.