Legendary West Indies fast bowler Courtney Walsh feels Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli looked determined to score big runs in his 500th International match for India. The 34-year-old became the first-ever player in the game’s history to score a hundred on the 500th game for the country.
The former Indian skipper has shown excellent composure and temperament against West Indies to score his first overseas hundred in the last five years. Virat Kohli surpassed the record of Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar’s number of centuries after 500 International games on Friday.
Speaking on Jiocinema, Courtney Walsh hailed Virat Kohli for his brilliant century against the West Indies in the 1st innings and praised him for his partnership alongside Ravindra Jadeja in the middle overs in the historic 100th game between India and West Indies in the longer format of the game.
“It was a very, very good innings by Virat Kohli. A very good partnership between him and Jadeja. I think Virat was determined to get a hundred in this Test match, the 100th Test between India and West Indies, and the 500th international game for him,” Courtney Walsh said.
The Indian batting maestro also pipped the legendary Brian Lara’s centuries number in the No.4 position on his way to the 29th International century as his 25th century came batting at the No.4 position for India in the longer format of the game, which eventually helped him to get past Brian Lara record of 24 centuries in International cricket.
He Wanted To Do Something Bigger, It Was A Virat Kohli Show – Courtney Walsh
Courtney Walsh believes that Virat Kohli played with a lot of determination to remember something from this historic match against India and lauded him for his shot selection, as nothing went wrong for him until the run-out to end his innings and reckons that it is a proper show by prolific Indian batter at the end.
“He wanted something to remember from the match. You could see the determination on his face. With the sheer timing and the maturity he showed, there was nothing much that went wrong with this innings. You could tell he wanted a big score and he got it. He wanted to do something bigger, he found the gaps very well, superb timing. At the end of it, proper celebration. It was a Virat Kohli show,” Courtney Walsh added.
Virat Kohli is just below the Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar, and VVS Laxman in the list of the leading run-getter for India in test cricket. Earlier during the BGT 2023 Kohli broke the legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s record by becoming the fastest batter to complete 25,000 runs in international cricket.