Virat Kohli is playing his 100th Test.
Former India captain Virat Kohli became just the 12th Indian cricketer to play in 100 Tests, with the ongoing Test match against Sri Lanka in Mohali.
Kohli, who has been a vocal supporter of the red-ball format is one of the most successful captains in its long history and has accumulated over 8000 runs at an average above 50 with 27 hundreds.
The 33-year-old star batter looked in fine touch with the bat in the first innings before he was deceived by left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya when on 45. He has not added a three figure to his 70 hundreds across formats since 2019.
India declared its first innings after piling up 574/8 with Ravindra Jadeja scoring his career-best of 175*. Rishabh Pant (96), R Ashwin (61) and Hanuma Vihari (58) also scored fine half-centuries.
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As Kohli walked out to take the field with his teammates, he was asked by the captain Rohit Sharma to step back as the team had planned to give him a guard of honour as a show of respect. Kohli took few steps back and then walked out again as the team formed the guard of honour.
Soon after, Kohli was seen giving up a thumbs up to his teammates and exchanged a handshake with Rohit before the team members got into a huddle to discuss their last-minute plans.
Fans have been thronging to the PCA Stadium on the first two days after BCCI allowed 50% capacity crowd to celebrate Kohli's 100th Test match. They will hope to see him bat again though that depends on Sri Lanka's response to the massive score.