The biggest challenge for any Indian batsman is to score runs outside Asia. Be it in Australia, England, South Africa or New Zealand, leaving a strong impression on those turfs has always placed a batsman in good stead.
In the past, stars like Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman strengthened their reputations by performing in those countries. Now the Indian trio of Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane have a chance to prove themselves on this count, and join the club of greats.
In the Boxing Day Test, Vijay couldn’t make a century by adding more runs to his overnight score on Day Three, but so far in the series, he has shown great promise to become one of the best Indian batsmen on Australia soil. It does seem he has a long way to go, like his two teammates – Kohli and Rahane. Vijay took the shine off the new ball to help the Indian middle-order.
India were desperate to see some light at the end of the tunnel, especially, after Australia made 530 runs in their first innings. And they saw it. Thanks to Kohli and Rahane. This was Kohli’s sixth century away from India, as he equalled former Indian captains Sourav Ganguly and Mohd Azharuddin. Right now, he is behind the likes of VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, who has 18 Test centuries outside India.
Kohli was fortunate to have survived some dropped catches by the Australian fielder. But he didn’t lose the focus to stay ahead of the Aussies. He was at it and kept scoring runs, the way he is known to do. The Delhi batsman was busy cutting, pulling and practically playing shots all over the wicket. Eventually, Kohli shared the highest partnership of 262 with Rahane, which is highest by an Indian pair outside Asia in last 10 years. He also made his best ever Test score.
With the bat, he reminded his fans of what Tendulkar once told a gathering in Mumbai that records are meant to be broken. Kohli could be the one to do that by surpassing his record 100 centuries in international cricket.
Incidentally it was for Tendulkar that Rahane had to wait, before he could burst into Test cricket. With a century in the ongoing Test match in Melbourne, this Mumbai batsman has now scored all his hundreds away from home. Indeed very good news for Indian cricket, simply because the team isn’t solely dependent on Kohli. With a series against South Africa, New Zealand, England and now Australia – this team has found three top-order batsmen who could take India to the next level in Test cricket. It’s only India’s No. 3 and No. 6 which needs to be sorted out before the team travels aboard the next time.
Getting back to the Test match, there was a bit of slide in the Indian innings after KL Rahul and MS Dhoni had a short stint in the middle. But Kohli was still at it. The Aussies, who dropped quite a few catches of the Indian batsmen, got some respite in the post tea session. There could be more interesting things waiting to happen in this Test match. In all likelihood, the rise of the Indian trio is just the beginning!
