Virat Kohli was the talk of the town before the start of the Australian tour, especially after he was granted paternity leave by the BCCI to be with his wife Anushka Sharma for the birth of his first child in January 2021.
This would mean that he will miss three of the four-Test matches in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting December 17 with the first-ever day-night Test between India and Australia in Adelaide. This will be the only Test Virat Kohli will play on this tour, before he goes back home.
Much was said about his decision to put family first and then India suffered a 1-2 series loss in the ODIs. But Virat Kohli showed his mettle as captain and led India to an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match T20I series with one match to go.
He didn’t set the series on fire with his bat, but his twin half-centuries in the ODIs and a crucial 24-ball 40 in the 195-run chase in the 2nd T20I oozed class.
However, as a captain, Virat achieved a couple of milestones with the T20I series win and when Pandya hit the six off Sams to achieve victory in the second T20I in SCG, Kohli became the only international captain to win a series (more than one match) across all formats on Australian soil.
Kohli had won the Tests and ODIs the last time India toured down under in 2018-19 but had to be content with a draw in the T20Is. This time, however, he led India to a comprehensive series win with the last match still to be played.
Apart from him, South Africa’s Faf du Plessis is the only other captain to achieve victories in Australia in all three formats but his T20I victory came in a one-off affair in 2018. He had led South Africa to a 2-1 Test series win in 2016-17 and a 2-1 ODI series win in 2018-19.
Kohli also became the only Indian captain to win the T20 series in SENA countries – South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia.
Dhoni, the only other Indian captain to have led the side in all these countries in the shortest format had failed to win a T20I series in England and New Zealand.
(Hindustan Times inputs)
