Virat Kohli eclipsed legendary Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag on Friday by amassing a record seventh double hundred, the highest in Indian Test cricket history.
The Indian captain slammed an unbeaten 254 – his career-best Test score – as India posted a mammoth 601/5 before declaring on Day 2 of the second Test against South Africa in Pune. His 336-ball knock was studded with 33 fours and two sixes.
Kohli, whose previous best was 243 against Sri Lanka, also set the record for the highest Test score by an Indian captain.
With his first 200-plus score since December 2017 when he scored 243 against Sri Lanka in Delhi, Kohli joined Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene and England's Wally Hammond for the fourth-highest number of double hundreds in Test cricket.
Kohli Converts First Ton of 2019 Into Double Hundred
The Indian skipper, who now has 26 Test hundreds and 43 in ODIs, for a brief period of time had also surpassed Sir Don Bradman's eight scores of 150-plus before reaching his double hundred.
Bradman had eight scores between 150 and 199 but had 12 double hundreds to his credit.
Earlier, the 30-year-old Kohli scored his 26th Test century and his first this year, reaching the three-figure mark in 173 balls that included 16 boundaries.
A beautiful straight drive off Vernon Philander brought up Indian captain's 69th international hundred and the celebration was more about contentment than elation.
This was the 30-year-old’s first century in 11 innings. He last scored a ton in red-ball cricket against Australia in Perth in December 2018.
Kohli scored the ton in his 138th innings, surpassing Sunil Gavaskar (144) to become the fourth-quickest to reach 26 Test hundreds after Don Bradman (69 innings), Steve Smith (121) and Sachin Tendulkar (136).
With his 19th Test ton as captain, Kohli equalled Ponting for the second-highest number of Test centuries as captain. Both of them are now placed jointly at the second spot below former South Africa skipper Graeme Smith who has 25 Test tons to his name as captain.
Kohli’s 50th Test as Captain
The ongoing match in Pune, the second in the three-match series, is also a landmark Test for Virat. When India took the field on the opening day, Kohli surpassed Sourav Ganguly to become the second Indian captain after MS Dhoni to lead the side in 50 or more Test matches.
He is the fourth cricketer to score a century in his 50th Test as captain after New Zealand's Stephen Fleming, Australia's Steve Waugh and England's Alastair Cook.
During the course of his inning, Kohli also surpassed Dilip Vengsarkar's tally of 6,868 runs to climb to the seventh position in the list of players with most runs for India in the longest format.
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