Virat Kohli, the Indian cricketing superstar, had a mediocre outing in the first Test match against Bangladesh, failing to get past the 20s in both the innings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. In the first Test, the right-handed batter nicked the wide delivery from Hasan Mahmud through to the wicket-keeper Litton Das, trying to hit it through the cover region, scoring only six runs off six balls before heading back to the pavilion .
In the second innings, Virat Kohli was quite impressive in his brief stay at the crease before getting dismissed lbw off the bowling of Mehidy Hasan Miraz for 17 off 37. Notably, the 35-year-old would have survived the lbw decision from the umpire, if he took the DRS, since he had gotten an inside edge before the ball crashed into his front pad, according to the snickometer technology.
With the second Test against Bangladesh set to begin on September 27, SportsTiger looks at three reasons why Virat Kohli can score a hundred in the upcoming match at the Green Park in Kanpur.
Showcased good defensive technique in first Test
During his stay at the crease across both the innings in the Chennai Test, Virat Kohli looked quite solid in his defence, which is a prerequisite for a batter to get a big score, especially in the longest format of the game. He was able to negotiate the attacking lines and lengths from the Bangladesh pacers adeptly in the second innings, putting himself in good space to get a reasonable innings under his belt, only to get dismissed in a controversial manner.
Good record versus Bangladesh in Test cricket
In his seven Test appearances against Bangladesh, Virat Kohli has scored 460 runs in 11 innings at an average of 46 runs with two hundreds, including a double hundred, with a strike-rate nearing 70. The rate of scoring runs for Virat Kohli across a decent sample size against Bangladesh is quite similar to his career stats, which is why he could get a big score against the visitors in the Kanpur Test if the law of averages does prevail.
Due a big score in Test format
Virat Kohli gets a hundred in every seven innings in the Test format for the Indian cricket team, with a whopping 29 three-figure scores to his name in 193 innings, as of this writing. The last Test hundred for Virat Kohli came six innings ago at the Port of Spain in Trinidad against West Indies in the summer of 2023, which is why he is due a big score in Test format against Bangladesh at the Green Park this weekend.