India vs South Africa: Virat Kohli On The Cusp Of Joining Elite List Of Indian Batters | Cricket News

Virat Kohli will be looking to get back to scoring big runs in Test cricket when he leads India out against South Africa in the first match of the series at Centurion on Sunday. Kohli last scored a Test century in November 2019 and has since played 22 innings. This is the longest gap, in terms of innings, between two centuries throughout his career and Kohli is feeling the heat. India’s performance on the field continues to be good, irrespective of Kohli’s dodgy form with the bat, but the captain knows he needs to score big runs if India are to end their wait of winning a series in South Africa for the first time.

Kohli is also on the cusp of joining an elite list of Indian batters and he would want to reach the landmark in the opening match of the series itself. The Indian captain has scored 7801 runs in 97 matches at an average of 50.65 and is just 199 runs away from completing 8000 runs in Test cricket.

Once he reaches the milestone he will become the 6th Indian batter to score 8000 or more runs in Tests. Sachin Tendulkar (15,921), Rahul Dravid (13,265), Sunil Gavaskar (10,122), VVS Laxman (8781), Virender Sehwag (8503) are the other Indian batters who are part of the elite bunch.

Kohli, with 27 Test centuries to his name in November 2019, it looked like was in a hurry to catch up with his former teammate and idol Sachin Tendulkar in both ODIs and Test cricket. But the great Indian run machine has since hit a rough patch like none other in his career so far and he would want to end the drought here itself.

Promoted

Kohli has scored 5 half-centuries in this period, but has also registered four ducks and four scores of below 10. While rough patches are part of every cricketer’s career, the numbers become stark in case of Kohli as he has set amazingly high standards for himself with his unmatched consistency across formats from 2015 to 2019.

Indian cricket fans would hope to see Kohli raise the bat again and celebrate a big score soon.