Last Update: March 14, 2023, 10:52 AM IST
Virat Kohli has now scored 28 centuries in Test cricket. (AP Photo)
Virat Kohli ends his century drought in Test cricket with daddy century against Australia in Ahmedabad
‘monkey is off his back’, a phrase when used quite freely Virat Kohli Scored his 28th Test century during the fourth Test between India and Australia at Ahmedabad. Former India coach and popular commentator Ravi Shastri made a move on-air by replacing the ‘monkey’ in that phrase with ‘gorilla’, underlining the significance of Kohli’s first Test hundred in three years.
What the expression reflects is that Kohli was frustrated by his repeated failure to score a century in red-ball cricket with his last score before coming to Ahmedabad in November 2019. However, India skipper Rohit Sharma seems to think so.
“I don’t think there was a monkey on Virat’s back,” Rohit told reporters on Monday. his head. He is enjoying his cricket at the moment, which you can see. Obviously, he wants to perform big for the team, which he has done over the years. That’s all he wants to do whenever he plays for India.”
Kohli’s first century in Test cricket came after 41 innings. Since November 2019, he had not scored a century in all formats until the 2022 Asia Cup in the UAE, when he scored his first century in T20Is and then last December, in ODIs, his first century in this format since August. It was the first such score. 2019.
Rohit praised the way Kohli groomed his innings during the drawn Ahmedabad Test when he scored 186.
“Look, he (Kohli) has played over 100 Tests, scored so many centuries, for a player like him, it is a few innings here and there. We saw in white ball cricket, we saw in Asia Cup, he scored 100 and never looked back. I hope the same happens with the red ball,” Rohit said.
“It’s about going out there and applying yourself and doing things like that, he did pretty well and he did his own thing rather than worrying about the scoreboard and the way he batted, he usually kept batting,” he added. And this is how he got success. It is not easy to bat so many balls on the third and fourth day. Some balls take sharp turns and some have uneven bounce, this is the normal way of Indian wickets. He scored big and took us to the position we were in.
After this marathon innings of Kohli, his wife… Anushka Sharma put up a story on Instagram which revealed that the batsman was battling illness.
“I don’t think he is ill, he was just coughing a bit. He is not that bad health wise,” clarified Rohit.
get the latest cricket news Here