Virat Kohli joins Lara’s league

The Indian captain becomes the only other captain to score five Test double-centuries.

Virat Kohli celebrates his fifth double-century on Sunday.

Virat Kohli has now joined Brian Lara as the only other captain to have scored as many as five double-centuries in Tests as captain. Remarkably, all his double-centuries have been scored in a period of two years, in 2016 and 2017. Among Indians, only four others have scored double-centuries as captains - Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and M. S. Dhoni have a single such feat to their name.

Kohli, however, is a fair distance away from registering the highest-ever score by a captain. That record is firmly in the grasp of Lara, who scored an unbeaten 400 against England in Antigua in 2004, as captain of the West Indies. 24 scores registered by other captains separate Lara from Kohli, whose highest score as captain is 235, scored against England in Mumbai last year.

 

Kohli is also the fifth fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score his 19th century, behind Don Bradman, Sunil Gavaskar, Matthew Hayden and his Australian counterpart Steve Smith. Smith took 97 innings to reach his 19th century, while Kohli took 104.

Kohli is also the only Indian captain to have scored 12 Test centuries as captain.

Kohli’s double-century has helped India assume command of the ongoing second Test in Nagpur . All of his double-centuries - against West Indies in North Sound, against New Zealand in Indore, against Bangladesh in Hyderabad, and against England in Mumbai - have resulted in his team’s victory. Two of them (against West Indies and England) were innings victories.