With Steve Smith smashing records with the cricket bat, it seems Indian skipper Virat Kohli does not want to be left behind as he sets new landmarks of his own.
The 29-year-old batsman scored an unbeaten 156 runs off just 186 deliveries on the opening day of India’s final Test against Sri Lanka in New Delhi.
The hosts had ended the day strongly at 371-4 when stumps were drawn. The day clearly belonged to Kohli though who breached numerous milestones during his splendid innings.
5,000 TEST RUNS
In the course of his innings, Kohli went past the 5,000 Test runs mark, becoming the 10th Indian batsmen to do so.
The right-hander became the fourth fastest Indian to the landmark with the 105 innings it took him to get there. Only Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar have been quicker than Kohli to the mark.
Virat Kohli now first captain to score Test centuries in each Test of a three match series!#IndvSL
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) December 2, 2017
THREE CONSECUTIVE TONS
Kohli was coming into the match on the back of a double-ton in Kolkata and a hundred in Nagpur. As he notched up his 20th Test century on Saturday, the Delhi-born man had registered three hundreds in as many innings.
With this, he became the first captain in history to hit a century in all three Tests of a three-match series. He also became the first batsman to hit three consecutive Test tons twice in Test history having achieved the same previously against Australia in 2014-15.
Virat Kohli now first captain to score Test centuries in each Test of a three match series!#IndvSL
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) December 2, 2017
FASTEST TO 16,000 INTERNATIONAL RUNS
Kohli also breached the 16,000-run mark in international cricket in front of his home crowd in Delhi. He created a new record with this feat as he became the fastest man in history to do so.
The 350 innings it took Kohli to cross the figure beat the previous quickest 163 innings taken by South Africa’s Hashim Amla.
🏏 Brings up 5,000 test runs.
🏏 Becomes the fastest player to reach 16,000 international runs.
🏏 Hits his 20th test century.🙌 Virat Kohli is a run machine.@imVkohli 👌👌#INDvSL pic.twitter.com/UrSJZtKDXH
— Team Sachin (@TeamSachin) December 2, 2017
FASTEST TEST TON FOR KOHLI
The 110 deliveries it took Kohli to bring up his three-figures on Saturday is the quickest of his 20 Test hundreds to date. The Indian skipper was in sublime touch from the very first ball he faced as he brought up his eighth Test 150.
With Vijay scoring big too, it was the first instance of two Indian batsmen scoring 150 plus in a day’s play of Test cricket.
First time in India’s Test history that two batsmen have scored 150 runs in a day’s play – Virat Kohli has added 151 and Murali Vijay 154 so far. #IndvSL
— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad) December 2, 2017
KOHLI’S SUBLIME 2017
With his ton on Saturday, the Indian superstar now has 11 hundreds in all formats in 2017. The century was Kohli’s fifth of the year in the five-day format while he has another six in the ODI format.
Kohli now has a staggering 2,681 runs in all formats in the calendar year which is the highest for any Indian player in history. The previous best was 2,626 runs set by Rahul Dravid almost 18 years ago.
Virat Kohli now has 2627 runs in this year which is most international runs by Indian in a Calendar year surpassed the great Rahul Dravid…
2626 runs in 1999
— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) December 2, 2017
