Even though Virat Kohli has not registered a three-figure score for more than two years – his 70th ton coming in November 2019 – a century with the ‘King’ is always around the corner.
The upcoming home ODI series against the West Indies, to be played on the flat and hard tracks of Ahmedabad, provides a good opportunity for Kohli to break this rut. Expectations from Kohli to register his 71st century in this series will be more especially considering he doesn’t have the pressure of captaincy anymore.
All three matches of the ODI series will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The first game is scheduled to take place on Sunday followed by the second on February 9 and the third and final ODI on February 11.
If Kohli notches up a hundred in the upcoming 3-ODI series against Kieron Pollard’s side, he will create a new record in ODI cricket. Kohli has already scored 9 ODI hundreds against the West Indies, which is the joint-most by a batter in ODIs against one opposition; Sachin Tendulkar has registered 9 ODI centuries against Australia.
A ton for India’s number 3 will take him at the top of the list for batters with ODI centuries against a single opposition.
While he hasn’t made a century for a long time now, he has been in fluent rhythm with the bat, but just has failed to convert his fifties into hundreds. On the recent trip to South Africa, Kohli showed pristine touch with the bat, scoring a highly patient and self-resistant 79 in the Cape Town Test before raising two fifties in three ODIs.
This will also be his first series under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy.
India have, however, been dealt a major blow just a few days before the first game: Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad and the reserve bowler Navdeep Saini tested positive for covid-19 along with three other support staff members. These players have been kept in isolation and are all but certain to miss the first ODI.
India will also be without opener and vice-captain KL Rahul, who is unavailable for Sunday’s game. With both Dhawan and Gaikwad testing positive, the selectors added Mayank Agarwal to the squad, and he is likely to slot in straight in the eleven.
Rohit Sharma is returning from a hamstring injury and could be rusty in his first game back while the team is also without the injured pair of Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.
All this has added more responsibility on Kohli’s shoulders to bat big and bat through the innings. In process, his wait for the 71st might be finally over.
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