Virat Kohli stamped his authority in the historic pink-ball Test against Bangladesh as the India captain chalked up his 27th Test century at Eden Gardens on Saturday. It was his 20th Test century as captain in just 86 innings, as he passed Ricky Ponting on the list, who had 19 centuries to his name.
20th Test century as Captain of India ✅
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 23, 2019
27th Test century of his career ✅
70th International century ✅
41st international century as captain (joint-most)✅
1st Indian to hit a century in day/night Test ✅#KingKohli pic.twitter.com/q01OKPauOu
Kohli is now only behind Greame Smith, who has 25 Test tons as South Africa captain, albeit in 193 innings. He reached the milestone in 141 innings, incidentally the exact number of innings a certain Sachin Tendulkar took to score his 27th Test ton.
Most Test 100s as captain:
— ICC (@ICC) November 23, 2019
Graeme Smith 👉 25
Virat Kohli 👉 20
Ricky Ponting 👉 19
Kohli has gone to No.2 on the list today! #INDvBAN pic.twitter.com/EOaI6QqLMF
His latest three-figure score also means that Virat Kohli now has 41 centuries as captain across formats, a record he shares with Ricky Ponting.
It was also his 70th international century, making him only the third batsman after Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting to have that many centuries in international cricket.
During this innings, Kohli also scored 5000 Test runs as India captain, the only one to reach this milestone and also the fastest. Post a lean 2013-14 season, the Delhi lad has been ultra-consistent and this can be seen in his conversion rates.
Kohli is one of the few batsmen to have more Test centuries (27) than fifties, giving him a conversion rate of 55.1%, second only to the great Don Bradman, who had one of 69%. It still puts Kohli above the likes of Matthew Hayden, Younus Khan and Martin Crowe and also famed contemporary, Steve Smith (49.1% conversion rate).
If all of those statistics weren’t enough, Virat Kohli became only the fourth Indian batsman to have Test centuries in India’s premier venues- Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata.
Test 100s in all five major Test centres of India - Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru & Delhi
— Deepu Narayanan (@deeputalks) November 23, 2019
Gundappa Viswanath
Sunil Gavaskar
Sachin Tendulkar
Virat Kohli#INDvBAN #PinkBallTest
Needless to say, Kohli is also India’s first centurion in a Day/Night Test, and he achieved the feat exactly 13 years after his debut First-class game, a milestone he shares with Delhi and India teammate, Ishant Sharma.
Nov 23, 2006 - Virat Kohli makes his First-Class debut
— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) November 23, 2019
Nov 23, 2019 - Virat Kohli becomes India's 1st centurion in a D/N Test match. [This is also Kohli's maiden D/N FC match]#INDvBAN
Both Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma made their first-class debut in the same match. [Delhi vs Tamil Nadu]
— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) November 23, 2019
- Ishant Sharma took the 1st 5-fer haul in a D/N Test for India
- Virat Kohli scored the 1st century in a D/N Test for India#INDvBAN
Featured image courtesy: Twitter/ @ICC
