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The 'Man of Milestone' Virat Kohli was felicitated with a specially made Test cap by his childhood hero Rahul Dravid with the entire team lined up to honour him for completing 100th match in the longest format. He couldn't have more surreal moment than this on his special occasion as his wife Anuska Sharma and brother Vikash Kohli also stood beside him as he added another feather in his cap.
"It's well deserved, well earned, and hopefully it is just the start of many things to come. As we say in the dressing room, double it up," India's head coach Rahul said after honouring Virat.
Virat Kohli with all humility thanked his childhood hero who he has always looked up to.
"Thanks, Rahul bhai, it's a special moment for me. My wife is here and so is my brother. Everyone is very proud. It is indeed a team game and it couldn't have been possible without you. Thanks to the BCCI as well. I couldn't have received it from a better person, my childhood hero. I still have that picture with you from my U-15 days. In present day cricket, with the amount we play with three formats and an IPL, the one takeaway the next generation can take from me is that I played 100 games in the purest format," Virat added.
The 32-year-old has become the 12th Indian cricketer to make 100 Test appearances. Kohli, who made his Test debut in 2011 against West Indies, walked out to play his 100th Test at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali.
Couple of days earlier, Rahul Dravid said that playing 100 Tests is a huge achievement and Kohli should be proud of it.
“It is not easy to play 100 Test matches. Test cricket is not easy. To be able to play one is great, to be able to play 100 is a fantastic achievement. It is something Virat Kohli can be proud of,” said Dravid,
“When he played his first Test match I was batting alongside him. It has been incredible to see how he has grown over the last 10 years or so. The way he has grown as a cricketer and a person. He has carried this team for a long time, been the captain for the last five or six years of the last 10 years he has played in. He has always delivered, averages over 50 in 100 Test matches. It is a great achievement for one of India’s greatest players. Just looking at his fitness and where he is, he has a lot more to go and I am sure it is not something that he will be satisfied with,” he added.
Meanwhile, 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, 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.
