Indian Test Captain Virat Kohli made his debut against West Indies in 2011. He didn’t have greatest of series and struggled to score runs. He was found out against short pitch bowling and looked unsure at the crease against quality pace bowling.
It comes as a surprise that Kohli has failed to reach to his lofty standards and still looking to score his maiden ton in Caribbean.
Kohli has the dual responsibility of being the captain and also the premiere batsman of the side. He would like to lead from the front and by scoring runs, his captaincy will be more proactive and team will benefit.
India’s captain in waiting had a mind boggling IPL, where he scored four hundreds and single-handed took India to the WT20 semi-final. Kohli would like to replicate his limited overs form into Test arena and help India win many more matches.
That he is hungry to perform and lead by example was eloquently clear during the second warm-up match at Warner Park in St Kitts. After scoring just 14 runs in the first practice game, Kohli scored 51 in the second match. He batted for over two hours and faced 96 balls, a good outing for a No. 5 batsman.
Kohli had a great Australian tour in 2014-15, where he scored four centuries and completely dominated the Aussie attack. He stood tall against barrage of short pitch bowling and didn’t back down from any challenge and was India’s best batsman on that tour.
His numbers against West Indies are unimpressive. In 2011, when Kohli last played in the West Indies, he had scores of 4, 15, 0, 27 and 30. He has an overall average of 27.88 against the Caribbeans and a poor 15.20 in the West Indies.
He has 36 international hundreds in a very short span of time. His Test record is pretty good with 11 hundreds in 41 matches and would like to continue the good work.
Kohli has struggled against WI, with his average being 27.88 and only against England (20.12) and Bangladesh (14) his record has been worse.
India goes into the series as favorites and after winning in 2006 and 2011 same is expected from the Men in blue. The team performed well in practice matches and morale of the team is very high.
Virat Kohli would like to turn a corner and by scoring heavily his poor record against hosts will improve and India would go a long way in winning the series.