Virat Kohli was again India's lone warrior amid destruction as the two-time finalists found themselves in trouble in the first Test against South Africa in Centurion on Boxing Day. India were reduced to 24/3 with the debutant Nandre Burger running through the top-order before Kohli along with Shreyas Iyer gave his side some respite from the procession after losing the toss. The duo took India through to lunch without anymore hiccups as they stitched an unbeaten 67-run stand in the first session with Kohli looking solid as usual.
However, Kohli's patience and defence was breached by an on-song Rabada, who registered his first-ever five-wicket haul against India across formats. Kohli, Iyer and Ashwin got out in quick succession after the lunch break but not before the former India captain became the leading run-getter for India in World Test Championship history. Kohli surpassed Indian captain Rohit Sharma on the list, who got out for just five.
Most runs for India in WTC 2019-25
Virat Kohli - 2101 runs in 57 innings
Rohit Sharma - 2097 runs in 42 innings
Cheteshwar Pujara - 1769 runs in 62 innings
Ajinkya Rahane - 1589 runs in 49 innings
Rishabh Pant - 1575 runs in 41 innings
Kohli is now 10th on the list overall behind Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne, who has 2160 runs to his name in the WTC.
Kohli was caught behind by Rabada for 38 and he continued his wickets march with the scalp of Shardul Thakur later in the post-lunch session, who played a breezy knock of 24. KL Rahul is batting well on 39 but India need someone to stay with the wicketkeeper batter so that they can get to a score of around 220, which could be competitive on this surface. India were 175/7 at tea.
