A look at unique batting records held by Kohli as India's Test captain
Irrespective of the pitch, the country, the conditions, and the bowler, Kohli's bat did most of the talking, making him one of the best in business.
Virat Kohli is and will always be remembered for a variety of reasons; be it his illustrious captaincy record his in Tests, his never-say-never attitude on the field, or his batting records. While Kohli may have been chirpy on the field, he's never been louder when batting in pristine form. Irrespective of the pitch, the country, the conditions, and the bowler, Kohli's bat did most of the talking, making him one of the best in business.
Now, that he has stepped down from the Test captaincy, drawing curtains on the Kohli-leadership era, let's take a look at three of his most memorable batting records as skipper.
1) CENTURIES IN BOTH INNINGS AS TEST SKIPPER
After taking over the reins from MS Dhoni during the 2014/15 Australia series, the focus was once again on Virat Kohli who was playing his first overseas series since the poor England tour earlier that summer. But he made the most of the occasion.
In the first innings at the Adelaide Oval, he smashed 115. He then came back, in the fourth innings on a tricky pitch, and took hit 141. Despite his heroics, India fell short of their target by 48 runs. The sight of him holing out off Nathan Lyon in the deep is always going to be a painful one for the Indian fans.
2) MOST DOUBLE CENTURIES AS CAPTAIN
We all know Kohli's nickname is the 'run machine'. After all 7962 Test runs in 99 matches at an average of 50.39. His feat included a whopping seven double centuries as skipper, the most by an Indian player. In the list of all-time greats, he stands fifth. Former England batter Wally Hammond (9) is fourth in the list and he is preceded by West Indies legend Brian Lara at 7. Sri Lanka's maestro Kumar Sangakkara is second with 11 and of course, leading the chart is the great Sir Don Bradman with 12.
3) MOST RUNS AS INDIAN TEST SKIPPER
Going by the numbers above, it shouldn't come as any surprise that Kohli ends his captaincy stint with most runs as an Indian captain. At an astonishing average of 54.80 in 68 games, including 20 centuries and 18 half-centuries, the 33-year-old is sitting pretty at the top of the list with 5864 runs.
He is followed by a distant second and third in MS Dhoni and Sunil Gavaskar, respectively. While Dhoni amassed 3454 runs as skipper, the original 'Master Blaster' scored 3449 runs.
Virat Kohli after giving up captaincy in all forms of cricket, would be keen to get his willow talking again. For starters, his attention will be on the upcoming three-match ODI series against South Africa.