Virat Kohli returned to form with a brilliant hundred (100) in the second innings of the first Test against Australia in Perth, which India won by 295 runs to take a 1-0 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

This century marked Kohli’s 30th in Test cricket and his second consecutive at the Optus Stadium. With this knock, he also surpassed Sachin Tendulkar to become the Indian batter with most Test centuries on Australian soil, tallying seven.

It was an important knock for Kohli, who was struggling for runs leading up to the tour Down Under. The right-hander was troubled by the Bangladesh and New Zealand spinners in the recently held home Test season as he returned with scores of 6, 17, 47, 29*, 0, 70, 1, 17, 4 and 1.

After Kohli’s match-winning exploits in Perth, former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar compared the star batter’s struggles with Tennis greats like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic's occasional slumps.

"I said in commentary that Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafa Nadal, they are title winners. If they lose in the semi-finals, people say, 'Oh, they're not in form.' Anybody else getting into the semi-finals, you would say, 'Oh, what a wonderful performance.'

"Similarly, with Virat Kohli, because everybody is so used to him scoring so many hundreds quite regularly, when he doesn't score 100, even if he's getting 70-80 -- which a lot of guys will be very happy to get -- people say, 'Look, he's not scoring runs.' And that is the reason why there was that feeling.

"But then again, Indian fans, they're greedy fans. They're not going to be happy with their idol scoring only 60-70s. They want their icons, their idols, to score hundreds, and that is the reason there was this little talk about, 'Oh, he hasn't got a hundred since July 2023.' July 2023 is just about a year ago," Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

According to Gavaskar, Kohli neutralized the Australian attack and regained his form in the second innings of the Perth Test thanks to a minor change in batting stance.

"His body was completely relaxed when he came into bat in the second innings. In the first innings, because of the fact that India had lost two wickets early, he would have also been under pressure," Gavaskar remarked.

"In that second innings, you could sense apart from changing that stance, I think he also got his legs, which were maybe just a little bit wider at the start. Just a little bit, maybe I'm thinking too much, but that little thing might have given him that height he wanted. Well, in Australia, on the bouncier pitches, you need that edge.

"I liked that mid-wicket boundary that he hit off Hazlewood. That, to me, was not the easiest of shots. A straight drive is a little easier because your stance is like that, but just to open up a little bit and play that - that was all magic," he further stated.

Virat Kohli will now be keen to build on this match-winning knock in the remainder of the five-match Test series against Australia.   

The second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be played with pink ball from December 6 to 10 at the Adelaide Oval.