Virat Kohli, playing his 500th international game, brought up his first overseas Test hundred since December 2018 when he reached three figures during the second Test against West Indies today (July 21). He was eventually dismissed for 121.
The 34-year-old, who scored his first Test ton since 2019 against Australia in Ahmedabad earlier this year, last got to the landmark away from home on December 16, 2018 in Perth. He finally ended his streak on Friday, when a square drive brought up his 29th Test ton in his 187th innings, and first overseas century in 1,677 days.
Kohli equalled Don Bradman’s century tally with the hundred, with the Australian taking only 80 innings to score them. Kohli has the fourth-highest number centuries in the format for India, behind Sachin Tendulkar (51), Rahul Dravid (36) and Sunil Gavaskar (34). It was also Kohli’s 76th ton across all formats, and he is now 24 behind Tendulkar’s tally of 100 hundreds.
He became the first Indian to score a hundred in his 500th international game. Prior to Kohli, Tendulkar, Dravid and MS Dhoni had played 500 matches for India, but were not able to make any significant contributions. Overall, Kohli became the tenth international player in the elusive club.
The No.4 has managed to make the spot his own, recording his 25th hundred at the position. He is only the fourth batter with as many hundreds at No.4, behind Tendulkar (44), Jacques Kallis (35) and Mahela Jayawardene (30).
During his innings, Kohli also overtook Kallis to become the fifth-highest run-scorer across all formats. Before the innings, Kohli was 73 runs behind the South Africa all-rounder and now needs 375 runs to overtake fourth-placed Jayawardene.
It was also Kohli’s 28th hundred in all formats away from Asia, one spot behind Tendulkar in the list of most hundreds outside the continent for India. He currently has 15 away Test hundreds, the fourth-most amongst all Indians, and seventh amongst all batters.
Kohli also continued his stellar form against West Indies, recording his 12th hundred against the West Indies. Only Sunil Gavaskar, with 13 hundreds against the Windies, has more. It was his sixth hundred in the Caribbean, behind Gavaskar and Root (both with seven).
On day one, Rohit Sharma became the first India batter to make 2,000 runs in the history of the World Test Championship. He was dismissed for 80 in the first innings, to take his tally in the WTC to 2,035 runs. Kohli became the second Indian to the 2,000-run landmark and currently has the most runs by an Indian in the WTC, with 2.063 runs.
Kohli was eventually run out for 121, which pulled his Test career average to 49.29 after a dip due to a prolonged indifferent form. He needs to score 124 unbeaten, or 174 in his next innings to take his average over 50 in the format.
