If Virat Kohli is to join a select group of Indian batsmen, he must do so in the first match of the series against South Africa. There are 199 runs left for the Indian captain to reach the 8000-run milestone in Test cricket.
In the first Test of the series against South Africa at Centurion on Sunday, Virat Kohli will be hoping to get back to making massive runs in Test cricket. Until November 2019, Kohli has not surpassed the 100-run mark in any of his previous 22 innings in Test cricket. This is the largest inning gap in Kohli’s history between two centuries, and the pressure is mounting on him. India’s performance on the field continues to be outstanding, despite Kohli’s shaky batting, but the skipper understands that if India is to win a series in South Africa for the first time, he must score large runs.
Kohli is also on the verge of entering an exclusive group of Indian batsmen, and he intends to do so in the first game of the series. There have been 7801 runs scored at an average of 50.65 by the Indian skipper during the course of 97 Test matches.
His achievement will make him the sixth Indian batsman to score at least 8000 test runs. There are five other Indian batsmen in the elite group: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid (13,265, Sunil Gavaskar (10,122), VVS Laxman (8781), and Virender Sehwag (8503).
When Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 27 Test hundreds stood in November 2019, it appeared like Virat Kohli was on a mission to catch up to him in both one-day internationals and Test cricket. So far in his career, the great Indian run-machine hasn’t been in such a slump like this. He’d like to end it here.
As of this time, Kohli has struck five half-centuries and four lower-than-10 scores. Kohli’s remarkable consistency across all formats from 2015 to 2019 makes the figures even more striking because he has set incredibly high expectations for himself.
Kohli’s fans in India are eager to see him return to the crease and celebrate a big score once again.
