Virat Kohli’s struggle for a Test hundred

Australian bowler Matthew Kuhnemann celebrates the wicket of Indian batter Virat Kohli during the 2nd day of the 3rd test cricket match between India and Australia, at Holkar Cricket Stadium, in Indore, Thursday, March 2, 2023. (PTI Photo/Ravi Choudhary)

Scoring a Test hundred was never an issue for Virat Kohli ever since he made his first one after navigating through his first 13 innings. That was the longest gap in his illustrious journey of 27 Test hundreds.

Once Kohli made his first ton in Adelaide on January 24, 2012, his consistency in getting a three-figure knock has been nothing short of remarkable. By November 22, 2019, the former India captain had added 26 tons as if it was merely a routine job for one of the greatest batsmen of modern times.

However, since then, it seems to have been an eternity since Kohli scored a Test ton. After his twin failures in the Indore Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, there is now a gap of 41 innings between Kohli’s Test hundreds.

This is staggering because, along with Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, Kohli’s stature as an all-time great has never been in doubt. Comparatively, Tendulkar’s worst phase in terms of a lack of a Test ton came in his last 40 innings. Tendulkar, who has played 200 Test matches, failed to score a ton in his last 23 Tests (from July 2011 until November 2013).

Is that really a cause of concern for Kohli? Or will it happen sooner or later?

‘It does not matter’

“Who knows? None of us knows about that,” said former West Indies pacer Ian Bishop, who is regarded as the voice of sanity in commentary in the cricket world. “He has been a great player. It does not matter. Let us assume if he does not score a hundred. Does that take away what he has done? Virat has made his mark in history. He would like to continue to score runs and fans like me would love to see him scoring hundreds. But I can’t sit here and tell you when he is going to score another one, I am not that good (at predicting that).”

Of course, Kohli must be desperate to break the jinx of not getting a hundred in recent times, although he looked in complete control during his 44 in the Delhi Test. He was unlucky to have missed a ton in Cape Town (scored 79 in January 2022).

Kohli was going through a similar struggle in white ball cricket but after scoring his maiden T20I hundred in the Asia Cup in September last year, he scored 3 ODI tons in the last few months.

A similar turnaround in Test cricket is not something that can be ruled out at this point. However, there is only one Test match left in this series (the 4th starts in Ahmedabad on March 9) and if India doesn’t reach the final of the World Test championship in England, Kohli will have to wait for another nine months to play a match in red ball format.

“I am sure he would score a Test ton sooner rather than later but whether it will come with regularity or not I cannot say,” said Bishop. “Let us assume if he does not score another ton, how does it matter?”

Clearly, Bishop is suggesting that just focussing on a three-figure mark by Kohli is not fair.

While New Zealand’s Kane Williamson (26 tons in 92 matches) is just one short of Kohli’s Test hundreds, Steven Smith is the leader of the Fab Four with 30 tons in 94 matches.

(For the uninitiated, the Fab Four epithet came from former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe who, like cricket’s Nostradamus, had predicted about the dominance of the four – Kohli, Joe Root, Smith and Williamson – in the coming decades back in 2014).

However, for motivation, Kohli can take a leaf out of the book of former England captain Root, who has been stunning in his revival. Root’s Test tons before the beginning of England’s tour of Sri Lanka in January 2021 were not spectacular.

When Smith and Kohli had 27 centuries each and Williamson 24, Root’s tally read only 17 hundreds. Since that Sri Lankan tour in January 2021, Root has registered 12 Test tons and is fast catching up with Smith.

Can Kohli once again find his mojo and make the last leg of this Fab Four race even more engrossing?