Virat Kohli eyeing Sunil Gavaskar's long-standing record at home vs England

India’s batting stalwart Virat Kohli is on the verge of equaling several individual records in Test cricket and he will have a chance to emulate those when the 5-match Test series against England starts from January 25th. The former Indian captain is closest to a record held by former batting legend Sunil Gavaskar of most runs against England in home Tests.

Sunil Gavaskar currently stands as the highest run scorer for India in home conditions against England in red-ball matches. The 74-year-old scored 1331 runs at an average of nearly 36 against the Three Lions before his retirement and to this day, no one has been able to move him from the top.

But as we all know, no records are safe when Virat Kohli is at his absolute best. Last year during the ICC Cricket World Cup in India, the 35-year-old first emulated and then broke the record of Sachin Tendulkar’s long-standing record of 49 ODI centuries.

In total, Kohli scored 3 centuries in the CWC and smacked his 49th ton against South Africa in Kolkata before getting to his 50th ODI ton against New Zealand in the semi-final at Wankhede that too in front of his idol and the previous record holder of the most ODI centurion.

Almost 2 months later, Virat Kohli now has the opportunity to overtake another batting great that is Gavaskar. The former is currently the 3rd highest scorer against England in India (1015 runs) and he will become the 2nd highest by scoring 8 runs in the 1st Test to overtake Gundappa Viswanath who has 1022 runs.

In order to overtake Gavaskar, Virat Kohli needs 317 runs and he will have plenty of opportunity to do so in the 5 Tests in Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam, Saurashtra, Jharkhand, and Dharamshala. That’s not it. If he manages to score 152 runs then Kohli will become the 18th batter overall to complete 9000 Test runs and he is a century away from becoming the 15th batter to hit 30 hundreds in red-ball cricket.

Overall, Virat Kohli has 1991 runs against England in Test since 2012 at a decent average of 42.36 including 5 centuries and 9 half-centuries in 28 innings. On English soil, Kohli has scored 1096 runs with a highest of 149 in 17 matches.

Virat Kohli Can Use The Motivation Of Breaking Records To Have Another Memorable Test Series Against England

It goes without saying that Virat Kohli always shows up for his team when it matters the most, in the toughest of situations at home or away and it makes him a big match player. So expect nothing less than that this time around as well.

The 35-year-old who loves to prove himself against tough opponents can use the chance of breaking the above-mentioned records as motivation to produce another masterclass of a Test series. Those records can act as fuel to the fire he will be aiming to light up right from the 1st Test at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

Although the former World No. 1 Test batter is yet to get his hands on an ICC trophy as a senior player, there are absolutely no doubts regarding his class and time will tell if he can break the records we discussed in this piece.