With the double ton against Sri Lanka on day three of the second Test, Team India skipper Virat Kohli has equalled the record of most number of double hundreds as a captain with the veteran of the game.
Interestingly, the batting hero Kohli registered five double tons in order to equal the five double-hundred record achieved by Windies legendary batsman Brian Lara in the first instance.
As Kohli has many records under his belt, he has further gone a step ahead to become the second batsman after former Windies skipper Lara – to struck the most number of double tons in the Test cricket as a leader.
The 48-year-old Trinidad-born left-handed batsman Lara played 131 Tests for Windies. In 232 innings, Lara amassed 11,953 runs at an average of 52.88.
In his Test career, prominent face in world cricket, Lara amassed 34 centuries and 48 fifties between 1990 to 2007, in the longest version of the game.
Before the second Test against Loins in Nagpur, Kohli was sitting with Don Bradman and Michael Clarke from Australia alongside former South African skipper Graeme Smith with four double tons each.
However, Kohli cracked his fifth double hundred in a remarkable fashion while unsettling the Sri Lankan bowling line-up early on.
Before being dismissed on 213 off 267 deliveries, Kohli smashed 17 boundaries and two maximums while scoring at the strike-rate of 79.78.
Brute force with the bat, Kohli has been enjoying his rollicking form while scoring runs at his will.
With clearly a different wicket to bat on than Eden Gardens, Kohli further equalled former Indian batsman Rahul Dravid’s record after smashing his fifth double ton owing to the control and commitment.
Interestingly, in the space of two years, Kohli registered double hundred against five different opponents.
In 2016, Kohli started off the proceedings with Windies when he smashed 200, as it was followed by 211 against New Zealand in 2016 and 235 against England.
In 2017, in the One-off Test, Kohli scored 204 against Bangladesh in Hyderabad, before achieving the feat with 213 against the Islanders on November 26, 2017.
On the other side, Kohli is listed 13th in the overall list of most number of centuries by a Test skipper.
The former South African captain Graeme Smith is leading the table with 25 hundreds followed by Ricky Ponting with 19 hundreds.
Following the effortless knock, Kohli has subsequently surpassed former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar (11) to score most number of Test hundreds as a captain.