ENG vs IND 2018: Virat Kohli Joins Elite List After Scoring First Test Fifty In England

Better late than never, isn’t it? Virat Kohli finally delivered in Tests in England and it came when India needed his services the most. The India skipper scored his maiden half century on English soil in the ongoing first Test match at Edgbaston and in the process managed to join some elite names.

Kohli did not take to show his horror show in 2014 in England was an one-off.  The last time Kohli had visited England for a Test series, it had turned out to be a nightmare. He scored just 134 runs from ten innings, as India lost the series 3-1. Kohli scored 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0, 7, 6 and 20 in the five Tests and finished the series with an average of 13.40.

However, it took Kohli just one innings to show he has come a long way since that tour. Kohli came out to bat when India were in a precarious position. Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay gave the team a good start by adding 50 runs. However, Sam Curran dismissed Vijay and KL Rahul quickly to leave India reeling at 54 for 2. 5 runs later, Dhawan departed too.

Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane steadied the ship for a while before Ben Stokes struck twice. The all-rounder dismissed Rahane and Dinesh Karthik quickly to reduce India to 100 for five.

But Kohli held firm from one end and went on to score his maiden fifty in Tests in England. The 29-year started breezily and played his trademark cover drives to get going. Kohli had his fare share of luck as he was dropped twice. But it did not deter him as he kept waging a lone battle.

He played the waiting game, left a lot of deliveries, played with soft hands and scored whenever the opportunity came. The right-handed batsman kept the scoreboard ticking and reached his fifty with steer to the vacant third man region to register his fifty.

And as soon as he reached his fifty, he entered the record books. He joined Vijay Hazare (89 in 1952), Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi jr (64 in 1967), Ajit Wadekar (85 in 1971) and Mohammedd Azharuddin (121 in 1990) as the 5th Indian to register a 50-plus in his maiden innings as captain in England.