File photo of India's great batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
India Test skipper Rohit Sharma on Thursday labelled Virat Kohli's journey in the longest format as "one hell of a ride".
As India take on Sri Lanka in the first Test of the two-match series, batter Virat Kohli will achieve the milestone of playing 100 matches in the longest format.
Kohli was slated to play his 100th Test during the South Africa series earlier this year, but as fate has it, he will reach the milestone in India itself with a 50 per cent crowd in attendance at the PCA Stadium, Mohali.
"It has been a long journey for him and it has been a wonderful one. He has done exceedingly well in this format, he has changed so many things in the way the team is moving forward. It has been one hell of a ride for him and it will continue to be in the coming years," said Rohit during a virtual press conference.
"We definitely want to make it special for him, let's hope we have good five days of cricket. As a team, the series we won in Australia in 2018, was a very good series for our side and Virat was captain then. As an individual, the best memory as a batter, his Test hundred in South Africa in 2013, the pitch was challenging and there was a lot of bounce," he added.
Further talking about that knock, Rohit said: "Lot of guys were playing in South Africa for the first time, to face the likes of Morkel, Steyn, it was never going to be easy but the way Virat batted in the first innings and second, it was one of the best knocks of his that I clearly remember. This beats his knock in Perth."
This will be the first time that Rohit will be leading the side in the longest format of the game.
"I am looking forward to just winning games and doing the right things with the right players in the squad. As a Test team, we at the moment stand in a very good position, credit goes to Virat for getting us going in this format. What he did with the Test team was brilliant to see, I have to just take it forward from where he left," said Rohit.
"We are midway in the WTC table, I do not see we have anything wrong in this format, we want to improve every game we play, that is going to be the benchmark we set for ourselves. We look forward to correcting our mistakes, no team is perfect," he added.
(Reported by ANI)
