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Virat Kohli will join the list of legends when he steps foot at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali to make his 100th Test appearance. Ahead of the much-anticipated event, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President has compared Virat Kohli’s lean phase in red-ball cricket to that of current coach Rahul Dravid’s phase between 2002 and 2005.
“His technique, his positivity, his footwork, his balance…I like all of that” he said. “Above all, the way Virat changed his game after 2014 in England when he was struggling. I saw that Test series because I was working as a commentator there. And he had a remarkable five years after that. That’s what normally happens. I saw that with Rahul Dravid between 2002 to 2005. You see great players having these phases where they are at their peak. Sachin had many.”
The 33-year-old has not scored a century since November 2019. While his numbers have been good in white-ball cricket despite not being able to breach the three figures, his Test numbers tell a different story. He showed signs of return to form while donning the white jersey in India’s tour of South Africa where he scored a patient 79 in Cape Town’s tough conditions.
It will be the first time in seven years Kohli will don the whites as a player, not as a captain. The Delhi-born cricketer stepped down from Test captaincy after India's series defeat against South Africa earlier this year.
“It does require some adjustments. But I don’t think it’s very difficult,” said the 49-year-old. “He will come back and get hundreds. I know about all this talk, with him not getting a hundred for over two years. But he is too good a player to consistently go through this. He will get past this phase too. He knows how to get hundreds otherwise he would not have got 70 of them. As a former player, I know he will start scoring them again. He has enormous ability, so it’s a matter of time."
Ganguly, who is currently in London, has promised that he will be back in India to watch Kohli play his 100th Test in Mohali.
