Virat Kohli's best knock in each format in international cricket

He is the modern day master. He is a man who vanquishes every challenge hurled at him with an air of insouciance that makes his adversaries quiver. Virat Kohli has left an ineffaceable mark in every part of the cricketing world and is already hailed by many as one of the greatest batsmen to have ever wielded the willow.

Kohli is the fastest batsman to breach the 10000-run mark in ODI cricket, reaching there in just 205 innings, taking 54 lesser than Sachin Tendulkar. He has already scored seven double centuries in Test cricket, the most by an Indian batsman in the whites. He is also the leading run scorer in the world in T20Is, and averages above 50 in every format of the game.

As the Indian batting icon turns 32 today, let us have a look at three greatest knocks of the Indian batting gladiator in the three formats of the game.

3.Test cricket- 254* Vs South Africa, 2019

The South African side visited Indian shores in 2019 for a three-match Test series. In each of the three Tests, the visitors were blown away by the hosts. In the first Test, Mayank Agarwal and Rohit Sharma had pulverized the visitors by sending them on a leather hunt. Now, in the second Test, it was Kohli’s turn to do so.

The Delhi boy walked in with India placed at 163/2, and built an edifice that will be remembered with fondness. Anrich Nortje tried to cramp the Indian skipper with pace and searing short deliveries in the initial part of Kohli’s innings, but he was up to the task. Nortje delivered a short delivery that was quick, but Virat Kohli pulled him with an air of pomp past mid wicket. It was the monarch at his regal best.

Keshav Maharaj then tried to entice the skipper into a false shot by tossing the ball up to him. But the master got onto his front foot and whipped him past mid on for a boundary. Kohli brought up his fifty with a luscious cover drive. When the ball was pitched up by Vernon Philander, Kohli transferred his weight onto the front foot and caressed it through the off side for a boundary.

Kohli played the shot of the innings off the last ball of the 92nd over. Kagiso Rabada pitched the ball up to him, and he just punched the ball. The timing was so good, that the ball raced to the boundary. Kohli got to his 26th Test hundred with another splendiferous straight drive past the bowler.

The right hander continued to lord over the bowlers post his hundred. Rabada pitched the ball up, and Kohli executed a picture perfect cover drive. Kohli then dispatched Rabada on the other side of the wicket. The bowler delivered the ball on middle stump, Kohli got his dexterous wrists into play and whipped him past mid wicket for a boundary.

The Indian skipper got to his seventh double hundred with a couple through the leg side. And with that, he went into rarefied territory and became the first Indian batsman to score seven double hundreds in the whites. And finally, after a gargantuan knock that lasted 336 deliveries, Virat Kohli remained unbeaten on 254 as India declared their innings with the scorecard reading 601/5. His knock allowed India to trounce South Africa by an innings and 137 runs.