Virat Kohli ended his century drought on Thursday in the Asia Cup 2022 dead rubber against Afghanistan in Dubai. Kohli’s form in the tournament will be India’s biggest positive to take away from the Asia Cup with a month left for the T20 World Cup: Kohli finished with 276 runs in 5 innings with the help of 2 fifties and a century.
He ended the wait of over 1000 days and spanning across 81 international innings to bring up his 71st international century, tying with the second-highest Ricky Ponting; only the master, Sachin Tendulkar, is ahead with 100 hundreds.
Kohli’s knock of 122* off 61 balls helped India post 212.
Watch: Virat Kohli’s celebration as he kisses the ring in his neck
Kohli brought up his century with a maximum to Fareed Ahmad on the second ball of the 19th over, pulling the pacer over deep mid-wicket. Kohli gave a priceless reaction after reaching his century: he kept smiling. Just smiling. A man relieved; loads of weight off his shoulders, finally getting out of the rut – finally getting back to ‘form’.
Kohli soaked in all the applause from the Indian dressing room and from the few-thousand crowd present for this dead rubber. He smiled and laughed along with his batting partner, Rishabh Pant, before they embraced in a hug
He then let further of his emotions show – this time for his wife, Anushka Sharma as Kohli reached inside his shirt, took out his wedding ring which he wears like a locket around his neck and kissed it.
You can watch the celebration here:
Finally After 1021 days, The wait is over! #ViratKohli brings up his 71st international century 💯 #INDvsAFG pic.twitter.com/eDpVSwskit
— Shubhankar Mishra (@shubhankrmishra) September 8, 2022
We have seen Kohli celebrate his milestone in recent years by kissing the ring – that is his engagement ring with Anuskha, the person who Kohli said is responsible for him coming back strongly and who stood by him in the past couple of years during perhaps the toughest phase of his career.
In the mid-innings break, speaking to the broadcasters Kohli gave a lot of credit to his wife and dedicated his century to Anushka and their daughter, Vamika.
“It was indeed (the celebrations was worth a 1000 words). Very blessed, very grateful right now. The last two and half years has taught me a lot,” Kohli said.
“I kissed my ring in the celebrations as well, you see me standing like this right now and all the things being put in perspective has been done by one person, who stood by me through all these difficult times that is Anushka. This hundred is specially dedicated to her and our little daughter Vamika as well. When you have someone next to you, having conversations, putting the things in right perspective like I have been and Anushka has been by my side through these times, time away from the game has taught me a lot of things,” Kohli opened up on his emotions.
