'There is no bigger occasion than your 100th Test,' Wasim Jaffer expects Virat Kohli to end century drought

Former India captain Virat Kohli will make his 100th Test appearance when India lock horns with Sri Lanka at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali for the first Test starting Friday, March 4. The ace batter will thus become the 12th Indian player to achieve the feat. While the match was originally scheduled to be played behind closed doors due to the pandemic, the Board of Control for Cricket in India later announced that 50 per cent attendance will be allowed during the match.

As the batting megastar looks forward to making the special occasion memorable, former India Test opener Wasim Jaffer has come forward and encouraged Kohli to make the most of the occasion by scoring a ton. At the same time, the multiple-time Ranji Trophy winner has also said that the captaincy burden that Kohli had been carrying would not bother him anymore.

We are all waiting to see the old Virat Kohli: Wasim Jaffer

“It is his 100th Test and we keep talking about him not scoring a century for over two years in international cricket. There is no bigger occasion than this. I feel that leaving the captaincy will help him,” Jaffer was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

“He got a break during the T20I series and he will be refreshed. We are all waiting to see the old Virat Kohli who keeps scoring centuries. There is no bigger occasion than your 100th Test to start doing that again so eagerly waiting for it,” he added.

The Mohali Test will also be Kohli’s first after having relinquished captaincy from the format following the 1-2 defeat in the away series against South Africa in January. He led India in Tests for seven years and under his captaincy, the country remained at the pinnacle of ICC Test rankings continuously for 42 months between October 2016 and March 2020. At the same time, India never lost a Test series at home.

All eyes will now be on the 33-year-old’s 71st international century and 28th in the longest format. The last time the Delhi cricketer had breached the three-figure mark was back in November 2019 during the pink-ball Test match against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.