Virat Kohli regained his 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.
Kohli’s return of form is not a good sign for the Australian team, and former Australian captain Michael Clarke acknowledged the same.
"Yeah, you couldn't ask for a better second innings, really. How he come to the crease, minimal pressure on him, he wasn't scoring as many runs as he would like, sort of walk out like that, team dominating the situation. He played the way we know Virat can play though. So what he did was he was sharp, he was switched on because he knew he needed some runs for his own confidence. So he did the hard work early, and then he earned the right to play his natural game. And by the end of his innings, it was, everyone was sitting there saying, Virat's back, and there's no doubt about it," Clarke told ESPN Around The Wicket.
Clarke slammed Australia for allowing Kohli to settle so early into the series, adding that the hosts have an uphill task ahead.
"Now, as I mentioned before, a ball was bowled this series. The best players, you don't want them on top at the start of the series. You want them to have to work their backside off to get into the series. And if they score 100 by Test match three or four, you sort of accept that because they're so good. But to allow him to get 100 in that first test, we've got some work to do now to keep him down because he's full of confidence. He's got that strut back. And that's when he's at his best. That's why he's been the best player in the world for such a long period of time," he remarked.
The second Test is slated to be held in Adelaide, which will be played with the pink ball from December 6.
