OTD | One of India’s all-time greats, Virat Kohli announced himself in longest format 12 years ago

Virat Kohli, one of India’s most successful captains, first played in a Test match on June 20, 2011. In Kingston, Jamaica, he appeared in his debut against the West Indies. In his maiden Test, the right-handed batsman only managed to score 19 runs, therefore his performance with the bat was not impressive. 

He only just accomplished the feat of scoring four runs in the first inning. Fidel Edwards dismissed Kohli, who was batting at number five, back to the pavilion. The right-handed Kohli got 15 runs from just 54 balls in the second innings before being ultimately removed by Edwards once more.

On this day in 2011, Kohli earned his Test debut. As a batsman and skipper, he has transformed the course of Indian Test cricket. In the 109 Tests he has played thus far, he has amassed 28 hundreds with an average of 48.72.

Virat Kohli has scored 8479 runs in Test Cricket

In a 2019 Test match against South Africa in Pune, Kohli scored 254, which stands as his greatest Test performance to date. The similarities between Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have been stronger over time, and many believe that Kohli will surpass Tendulkar’s record of hundred hundreds.

After 2021 and 2022’s first half, which fell short of Kohli’s enormous expectations, the ace batter began his road to redemption with the Asia Cup in 2022. Before the competition, Virat took a break from the sport for over a month. Since then, he hasn’t looked back and has performed well for his side in almost all the matches he has played.

Virat Kohli was one of the senior batsmen who faced criticism for his performance in the World Test Championship final (WTC), which just ended at The Oval. Kohli was two runs short of hitting his half-century in the game’s fourth inning. At a crucial moment in the game, he was dismissed while playing a wide delivery, and his method of dismissal was criticised. Kohli is now placed 13th among the Test rankings. In the longest format of cricket, India’s run machine has amassed 8479 runs with a strike rate of 55.34