New Delhi: Virat Kohli, the man needs no introduction when it comes to displaying stellar performance on 22 yards pitch. There is a long list of bowlers like Tahir, Johnson, Amir and Malinga who have often seen their deliveries sailing into the crowd while facing Kohli. But this one fact will blow your mind! The Indian run-scoring machine has hit just one six in his four double hundreds! Yes, this fact is hard to digest, but this is the reality.
Kohli's name has become synonymous with consistency, success and top notch performance. The Delhi-born batsman surpassed Australian legend Sir Don Bradman and the wall Rahul Dravid yesterday when he scored his fourth test double ton in the one-off test match against Bangladesh. He is the first batsman to score double centuries in back to back four test series.
Kohli scored a wonderful 204 off 246 balls before unluckily getting out on an LBW decision.
The run scoring machine scored 200 (375) against West Indies in July 2016, 211 (536) against New Zealand in October 2016, 235* (535) against England in December 2016 and 204 (246) against Bangladesh yesterday.
Everyone knows him for his aggressive hitting on the field, but what is surprising about these four double tons in four series is that he has hit just one six, the reason for which is that he has started to play longer innings a lot more than he used to. He scored the only six in his double ton against England off Woakes' delivery in which the ball sailed over long-off.
In an interview given to bcci.tv, Virat explained how he builds his innings in the longer format of the game. "This is because of captaincy that you go on more than you usually do as a normal batsman. The room for complacency is no more present when you are the captain. I wanted to play longer innings, my first 7-8 100s were not even 120+ scores. After that I made a conscious effort to bat long, control my excitement and not be complacent."
If we analyze deeply, three of Kohli's four doubles tons have been scored in India, and only one double ton has been scored out of the country. Kohli is playing a risk-free game and he is giving it time, as two of his double tons out of four have c ome over 500 balls. Apart from attaining good fitness, he is focusing on the game mentally. And it is evident on the field with his mixed defensive and offensive gameplay, which also affects opponent bowlers morale. He is a mystery on the field which can't be solved easily and the bowlers have to work hard to send him back to the hut.
Eat, sleep, break records, repeat! @imVkohli has now scored the most number of runs in a single home season! Is there anything he can't do? pic.twitter.com/Bm9ZTEkpiM
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) February 10, 2017
In the interview, Virat further said "I have worked on my fitness as well over the years. I feel like I can go on for longer periods now. I don’t feel tired easily, and I definitely don’t get satisfied when I get a Test hundred, which used to be the case before because I used to give too much importance to Test cricket separately. But now I have started to treat it as any other game of cricket, and I have to keep going on as long as my team needs me to."
There is literally "ain't no mountain high enough" for Chikoo (called by his teammates), as he is currently unstoppable on the pitch, and has proved his consistency by winning back to back matches and contributing to India's undefeatable streak both as a team player and a captain. With Australia's tour to India and Champions Trophy round the corner, we would be hoping to see similar consistent and match winning performances by the Indian captain.
