235 vs England Probably My Second Best Innings In Tests, Says Virat Kohli
Dec 12, 2016 at 4:50 PM
Going by the words of Indian captain Virat Kohli, the series win over England on Monday is the sweetest among all in 2016, as India thrashed the visitors by an innings and 36 runs to take a three-nil lead at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai with one more match left to play.
Setting himself loose in the first Indian innings, Kohli shattered the English bowling line-up to all parts of the ground, scripting one of the best, if not the best innings of his Test career so far. Watching him find gaps with such grace and class, anything but immense pleasure was felt, even by the touring visitors in the crowd. In the due course, the right-handed batsman set new records and broke couple of them too.
His 235 against England is now the highest score by an Indian captain in Tests, surpassing the previous best of 224 by Mahendra Singh Dhoni against Australia at Chennai in 2013. By doing so, he thus became the first Indian and fourth batsman overall to register three 200 plus scores in a single calendar year, one behind Australia’s Michael Clarke, who scored four double hundreds in 2012.
Going by numbers, his innings in Mumbai should be his favorite among all but well, it is not. Claimed from the horses mouth itself, this knock will go down as his second best in Test career. But then, which one tops the list? Here lies an answer.
Virat’s 141 against Australia at Adelaide in 2014 is his most found innings in Test cricket. Batting fourth on the last day of the first Test, India were set a target of 364. The visitors came close but eventually slumped to a 48-run defeat. But what stole the show was Virat’s brave knock, which set the tone from the outset. Even Australian captain then Michael Clarke was impressed with his innings as he said, “Virat’s innings is the best I have seen in recent past”.
“I am still personally attached to the one in Adelaide (second innings). That was the beginning of our transition. This has been an ongoing process and I have only gained from the energy around in the change room and from the teammates. This is probably the second best. In my heart, I still rate the one in Adelaide higher than what I have scored elsewhere.”