File photo of Virat Kohli.
Virat Kohli has always been known for leading by examples and averages a staggering 53-plus in Test cricket as India gear up for the first day/night Test against Australia in Adelaide from December 17.
The 32-year-old skipper will be available for this only Test and will be looking to leave the series on a strong note before going on paternity leave.
And Australia has always been a hunting ground for Kohli, feels former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar, who recalls how the current Indian skipper revived his Test career in 2011 after being closed to getting dropped. Manjrekar remembered that Kohli was struggling to score runs during the 2011 Australia Tour under the captaincy of MS Dhoni but came back strongly in the fourth Test with a century in Adelaide.
As a matter of fact, Kohli scored just 11, 0, 23 and 9 in four innings in Sydney and Melbourne prior to the century. However, he came back strongly in Perth with knocks of 44 and 75 and backed it up with his maiden century in Adelaide.
“Virat Kohli is Virat Kohli. He always finds ways to score runs,” Manjrekar said on a TV show. “The hundred that he scored in the 2011/12 series, India lost it 0-4. They’d lost to England 0-4. And I think that was the only century scored by an Indian in that series. He was a young man who actually was on the verge of getting dropped after Sydney. Dhoni backed him; he played in Perth scored a 70 and then he got that hundred.”
“Now at Adelaide, a lot of Indian batsmen have got runs. It’s a pitch closer to home. It’s got pace but the bouncer comes around this high (Pointing to his chest). It’s like an Indian pitch, but because it’s day/night and there’s going to be the pink ball, that changes things completely. The thing with Virat Kohli is that later, in 2014/15, he hit four hundreds,” Manjrekar added.
