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Virat Kohli will be over the Moon when he will step into his 100th Test which is scheduled to be played on March 4 (Friday) in Mohali. Marking this special occasion of becoming only the 12th Indian to play as many Test matches, Virat will have a chance to add one more feather of the many on his cap.
World's highly touted batter will have an opportunity to place his name alongside the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman. Virat is just 38 runs short of achieving a 8000-run mark in the red-ball format of the game. If he manages to score 38 runs in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Mohali, he will become only the sixth India to do so and will join the elite list which is well adorned with the aforementioned India legends.
Not just the this, he will also become the fifth fastest Indian to achieve the milestone behind Sachin Tendulkar (154 innings), Rahul Dravid (158 innings) Virender Sehwag (160 innings) and Sunil Gavaskar (166 innings). So far, Kohli has played in 168 innings.
Virat, who stepped down from Test captaincy after the debacle in South Africa, is in search of runs and is waiting for his willow to fire. His returns in red-ball cricket for the last couple of years have been the worst in his fairly long career. The last international hundred that he scored was back in November 2019 against Bangladesh.
In the last 5 Tests at home in 2021, Kohli has scored just 208 runs at an average of 26.00 which is lowest in any calendar year at home. Thrice he has been dismissed for a duck in 8 innings. Out of his 8 dismissals in 2021, 75 per cent of them are by a spinner (6/8). Three each by off spinners and left arm spinners.
Virat is coming all afresh from a brief break which he took from the final T20I against West Indies and continued till the three-match T20 series against Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, Virat's 100th Test celebration have received a huge boost as Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) has confirmed that there will be 50 per cent crowd attendance for the historic Test at IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali.
India's Test Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Mayank Agarwal, Priyank Panchal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, R Pant, KS Bharat, R Ashwin (subject to fitness), R Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, J Bumrah (vc), Md. Shami, Md. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Saurabh Kumar
Sri Lanka's Test Squad: Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Pathum Nissanka, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dhananjaya de Silva (vc), Kusal Mendis (subject to fitness), Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Charith Asalanka, Niroshan Dickwella, Chamika Karunaratne, Lahiru Kumara, Suranga Lakmal, Dushmantha Chameera, Vishwa Fernando, Jeffrey Vandersay, Praveen Jayawickrema, Lasith Embuldeniya.
