Sports / Kohli becomes first Indian to smash 40 international hundreds as captain

India captain Virat Kohli registered his first Test hundred in 2019 on Day 2 of the second Test against South Africa in Pune. The right-handed batsman had finished on 63* on Day 1, and went on to stick it out in the middle to reach the landmark. Overall, this is Kohli’s 26th ton in the longest format.

#KingKohli ✌💪 pic.twitter.com/x5A2wNZwcM

— BCCI (@BCCI) October 11, 2019

It took the Indian skipper 9 innings to get his first hundred in Test cricket this year. Before this, he had scored two fifties in 8 innings.During the course of the innings, the Indian captain also surpassed Dilip Vengsarkar to climb to the 7th position in the list of players with most runs for India in the longest format.

With his ton, Kohli also equalled former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting’s massive Test record of scoring 19 Test hundreds as captain. He is tied at the 2nd place along with Ponting, with South Africa’s Graeme Smith at the top position with 25 centuries to his name.

Kohli also surpassed Sunil Gavaskar to become the fourth quickest player to reach 26 Test tons in terms of innings played. While Kohli had taken 138 innings, Gavaskar had achieved the same feat in 144 innings. Only Don Bradman (69), Steve Smith (121) and Sachin Tendulkar (136) are higher than Kohli in the list.

Kohli struck 16 fours in the course of his innings before reaching the landmark. He played a couple of dangerous edges at the start of the day, which went past fielders at slip positions, and raced to the ropes. The batsman made most of the lifelines and went on to pile on more misery on the Proteas.

Kohli also stitched a hundred run-stand with Ajinkya Rahane for 4th wicket, as the latter went on to register his 20th Test half century. India are currently leading 1-0 in the three-match Test series.