Virat Kohli will soon surpass Mohammad Azharuddin's Test record against West Indies
Virat Kohli is back to lead the Indian team against the West Indies in a two-match Test series after a brief rest. Kohli was rested in the recently concluded Asia Cup 2018, which India won for the seventh time, due to his busy international schedule. The much-needed break for the captain came after the lengthy England tour, which comprised of three-match T20I, three-match ODI series and a five-match Test series. India won the T20I series 2-1 but lost the ODI series 1-2 and were defeated 4-1 in the Test series.
The comeback of 'Run Machine' Kohli is a big boost for the team as soon after the West Indies series, India will tour Australia for a tough Test series. In the Windies series, all eyes will be on the Indian skipper as he has a chance to surpass former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin's run tally against the Caribbean side in Test cricket.
Kohli is just 38 runs short of overtaking the former captain's tally of 539 runs. Kohli has scored 502 runs against West Indies in Tests and will be looking to achieve the feat in the two-match Test series. In the previous series against Windies, Kohli surpassed Mahendra Singh Dhoni who has scored 476 runs against them.
Former Indian great Sunil Gavaskar tops the list with 2746 runs against the Caribbean side, while Rahul Dravid (1978 runs) and VVS Laxman (1715 runs) follows him on the prestigious list.
Kohli as already achieved various feats in international cricket and the way the Indian skipper is playing, every batting record is under threat.
The first Test match of the series will be played at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot from October 4 to 8, followed by the second match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad from October 12 to 16.
The five-match ODI series will begin on October 21 at Guwahati, followed by the second ODI on October 24th at Indore and third ODI at Pune on October 27th. The final two one-dayers will be held at Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram on October 29th and November 1, respectively.
The one-dayers will be followed by the three T20 Internationals to be held at Kolkata (November 4), Lucknow (November 6) and Chennai (November 11).
India Test squad: Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur.
