Kohli scored his first international century since November 2019 and the highest T20I score for India.
India and Afghanistan have both been knocked out of the Asia Cup finals race and played for pride in the Dubai ground. Mohammad Nabi won the toss and chose to field first. KL Rahul captained India as Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, and Yuzvendra Chahal were rested for this match with Deepak Chahar, Akshar Patel, and Dinesh Karthik coming into the XI.
Kohli opened the innings with KL Rahul and hammered the Afghani bowling from the start. Rahul made 62 in 41 balls with 6 fours and 2 sixes as he added 119 runs for the first wicket with Kohli. While Afghanistan would have thought of some respite, Kohli switched into top gear at the fall of Rahul’s wicket.
The former India captain went on to score his first T20I century, his 71st international ton, and his first international hundred since November 2019, in just 53 balls.
He finished at 122* in 61 balls with 12 fours and 6 sixes to his name, as India made 212/2 in 20 overs. Rishabh Pant also contributed 20*. This also became the highest T20I individual score by an Indian, beating Rohit Sharma's record of 118.
Kohli’s century made him the joint second most century maker in international cricket as he equaled Ricky Ponting’s record of 71 international centuries. He also became the fourth Indian to score centuries in all three formats after Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, and KL Rahul.
The Cricket fraternity on Twitter was just in awe of the innings that Kohli played and couldn’t keep themselves from praising him.
Here are some tweets: