11 years of Virat Kohli in Test cricket
On this day 20th June in 2011, Virat Kohli made his Test debut.
For celebrating his 11 year long journey, here are some unique records created by the former Indian captain:
- Most matches as a captain:
Virat Kohli ranks first in the list of Indian captains to play most Test matches. From a duration of 2014 to 2022, India played 68 matches under Kohli's captaincy. The team won 40 matches, lost 17 matches and 11 matches ended in a draw. Second, on the list is MS Dhoni who played 60 matches from 2008 to 2014. He is followed by Sourav Ganguly who played 49 matches from 2000 to 2005.
- Most double hundreds in a career:
Since 2011, Virat Kohli played 101 matches and has 7 double hundreds. He is the first batsman in India to reach the milestone. Behind him are Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar with six 200s followed by Rahul Dravid with 5 double centuries. In the 2017-18 India vs Sri Lanka series, Virat scored 610 runs and made two 200s. Kohli ranks fourth in India to have the most hundreds in Test matches. He has scored 27 centuries and ranks behind Tendulkar, Dravid, and Gavaskar with 51, 36, and 34 hundred, respectively.
- Century and a duck in the same match:
Virat Kohli is also a part of this unique list which consists of players who scored 100 runs and got dismissed without scoring a single run in the same Test match. On 16th November 2017 when India played against Sri Lanka, Kohli got out on a duck in the first innings. He made a brilliant comeback in the second innings and scored an unbeaten 104 runs. After this match, Cheteshwar Pujara registered his name on the list while playing against Australia in 2018, he made 106 runs in the first innings and went back to the hut with a duck in the next innings. Since then, no other player has been included in the list.
- Most runs in a match being on the losing side:
Virat Kohli ranks 3rd in India and 7th in the world for making the most runs for his team in a match where the team ended up losing. On 9th December 2014, Kohli made a century in both the innings against Australia in Adelaide. He smashed 115 and 141 runs totaling 256 runs. Brian Lara tops the list with 351 runs and Vijay Hazare tops India's list with 261 runs.
- Fastest to reach 7000 runs:
Virat Kohli ranks behind Sehwag and Tendulkar for being the fastest Indian cricketer to reach a 7000-run mark. Kohli reached the milestone in 8 years 112 days in 139 innings while playing against the Proteas. He has made 8043 runs in 101 matches played so far.
Interestingly, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid also made their Test debuts on the same date in 1996.
