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 to Australia. Virat has been achieving 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 back from Australia…
2011: Responded to Manjrekar’s statement Kohli made his Test debut against West Indies in 2011. He got a chance to tour Australia. He was able to score 41 runs in 4 innings of 2 Tests. Former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar then said: Make Virat play one more Test, so that it becomes clear that he does not fit in this format.
The next Test was in Perth, Virat played innings of 44 and 75 runs. He also got his chance in Adelaide, where he scored 116 runs. It was his first Test century. Manjrekar must have said in 2023 that Kohli is the best Indian Test batsman of this generation.
2012: “Hobart Hurricane” faced Sri Lanka. Virat made his ODI debut in 2008, till 2011 he scored 8 centuries in this format. Of these, 7 centuries were spent in Asia; outside Asia, questions arose about his technique. After the Test series in 2011-12, the ODI Tri series was held in Australia itself. Sri Lanka was the third team. Virat could only score 2 fifties in the first 7 matches. Captain MS Dhoni faced him again in Sri Lanka’s last match.
To reach the final, India had to chase down 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 from 86 balls despite the presence of a specialist York bowler like Lasith Malinga. Based on their innings, India won the match in just 36.4 overs. Malinga gave away 96 runs in 7.4 overs, of which Kohli alone scored 73 runs. Australia named this innings played at the Hobart ground “Hobart Hurricane”. Hurricane means storm.
2014: Virat Kohli scores 4 centuries after a poor tour of England. In 2014, he proved himself in all three formats. At the age of 25 he also became vice-captain, but then came the England tour. Where Virat couldn’t even get a fifty in 5 Tests. He scored 134 runs at an average of just 13.40.
After the end of the England tour, the team traveled to Australia in December. Virat had to become captain in the first Test as Dhoni was injured. Kohli made the most of the opportunity in Adelaide and scored centuries in both innings. The team went in pursuit of the target of 364 runs but collapsed 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 scored 169 and 54 in Melbourne. Dhoni retired from Test after the Melbourne Test, Kohli got the full-time captaincy. He also scored a century in the next Test. Kohli scored 692 runs in 4 Tests.
2016: Became the best in T-20, reached its peak In 2016, the team traveled to Australia to play the white ball series. In 5 ODIs, Virat scored 381 runs scoring 2 centuries and 2 fifties, but the team lost 4-1. Virat’s monstrous form was revealed in T-20. He helped the team win all three games with innings of 90, 59 and 50 points. In the series, he scored 199 runs at a strike rate of 160.48. He was the player of the series. From then till 2019, Virat reigned 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 earned the captaincy of all three formats. In 2018, the team traveled to England for the first time. The team lost 4-1 in 5 Tests, after which questions started being raised about Virat’s captaincy. The England tour ended and the team reached Australia again in December. Kangaroo pacer Pat Cummins said Virat wouldn’t even be able to score a century.
Virat could only score 282 runs in 4 Tests, but he scored an innings of 123 runs on a difficult pitch in Perth. Australian experts also called it one of the best centuries. Virat also said in an interview that it was 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 victory in Australia by an Asian team in cricket history. Virat became the first captain from 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 showed up without two great batsmen Steve Smith and David Warner. In 2021, both players returned and Australia became stronger. The Indian team toured Australia in December, but Kohli was only going to play one Test. He had to return to India for family reasons.
Kohli scored 78 runs in the first Test, the team could only score 36 runs in the second innings and lost the Test. Questions were raised that Kohli should not leave the team in tough situations, but captain Virat had then groomed a team that could win anywhere. Ajinkya Rahane captained Virat and the team again won the series 2-1. Under Virat’s captaincy, the team remained number 1 for 5 years from 2017 to 2022.
2022: Form returned with “Shot of the Century”. Kohli, who was at the top of his form until 2019, went out of shape during the Corona outbreak. He could not score a single century in 2020 and 2021. On 8 September 2022, he ended the century drought by scoring a T-20 century against Afghanistan after 1021 days. However, he still didn’t seem to be in good shape.
The T20 World Cup was scheduled to take place in 2022, the venue of which was the same as where Kohli had made his second home ground. India’s first match was against Pakistan in Melbourne, Australia. The team achieved the target of 161 runs, but India lost 4 wickets for 31 runs. Kohli held on, but at one point the team needed 48 runs off 18 balls.
Kohli started playing his shots from the 18th over, but 28 runs were needed off 8 balls. Haris Rauf gave only 3 runs from 4 balls in the 19th over. He bowled the fifth delivery short, Kohli hit a six off the back foot in the forward direction. This shot was so incredible that ICC named it “Photo of the Century”. Kohli scored 82 runs and India almost won the losing match.
In the T-20 World Cup, Kohli scored 296 runs by hitting 4 fifties and returned to form. After that, he also scored centuries in Test and ODIs. In 2023, Kohli also won the Player of the Tournament award by scoring 765 runs in the ODI World Cup.
2024: Form was lacking throughout the year. In 2024, Kohli was out of form again. Before coming to Australia, he could only score 250 runs in 6 Tests. Only fifty came in ODIs and T-20s as well. The only positive thing for Virat after his poor form was that he was going on tour to Australia.
The Perth Test began on November 22. India won the toss and elected to bat and Virat was out after scoring only 5 runs. Then it looked like Virat might not be able to make a comeback in Australia this time, but in the second innings Virat proved otherwise. He scored 100 runs with 8 fours and 2 sixes and took the team to 487 runs.
Virat scored his 12th international century in Australia Virat scored his 30th Test century in Perth, his 7th Test century in Australia. He also became the player to score more centuries in Australia than Sachin Tendulkar. Virat loves the fast and bouncy pitches of Australia. In the 14 Tests played here, he has scored 1457 runs at an average of 56.03. These include 7 centuries and 4 fifties. He also scored 1327 ODI and 747 T20 runs in Australia. Including all three formats, he has 12 centuries to his name in Australia, which is the highest among foreign players.
Scored his 9th Test century against Australia. Virat also enjoys playing cricket against Australia. Against him, he scored 2147 runs in 26 Tests. He scored 9 centuries and 5 fifties against Australia. Out of which 2 centuries came to India, while 7 centuries came to Australia.
Also likes Australia in ODIs and T-20s. In white ball format, Kohli likes Australia the most after Pakistan, Virat scores a lot of runs against both. In 49 ODIs against the Kangaroo team, he scored 2367 runs scoring 8 centuries. While in 23 T-20 matches, he has scored 794 runs including 8 fifties.
Graphics: Kunal Sharma