Watch: Virat Kohli Puts Team Ahead Of Personal Milestone

That why Virat Kohli is so much respected in the cricketing fraternity once again became clear with his gesture in the recently-concluded first Test of the ongoing three-match series against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens. Time and again, the India skipper has made it clear that team’s cause is always paramount and the 29-year old once again proved it with a brilliant example.

After a duck in the first innings, Kohli had found his groove in the second innings and was just 14 short of a brilliant century which came when the team needed him the most, when he signalled to head coach Ravi Shastri in the dressing room. It was the drinks break in the second session on the final day, and India were 321/7 after 85 overs, almost 200 ahead of Sri Lanka. However, instead of going for the personal milestone which was to reach the century, Kohli was keen to declare the innings to give his bowlers a real chance of winning the game.

And so, he was seen signalling to Shastri in an animated way before the head coach made a signal with his fingers, perhaps telling the skipper to score 20 more runs.

Here is the clip showing Kohli and Shastri communicating through signals:

How about that for sign language? Care to decode this conversation between the Captain and Coach? #INDvSL pic.twitter.com/cN54UzGJy8

— BCCI (@BCCI) November 20, 2017

Well, Kohli did not take long to score the remaining runs as he reached his 18th Test ton with a maximum before declaring the innings.

18th Test century for @imVkohli followed by the declaration. Sri Lanka need 231 runs to win the 1st Test #INDvSL pic.twitter.com/J0Lqp650SZ

— BCCI (@BCCI) November 20, 2017

Meanwhile, it was Kohli’s 18th century in Tests and it helped him to become the second Indian batsman after the legendary Sachin Tendulkar to register 50 international hundreds. Kohli is now eighth in the list of most number of international centuries. He is now the sixth in the list of Indians with the most number of Test centuries. Only Mohammed Azharuddin (22), Virender Sehwag (23), Sunil Gavaskar (34), Rahul Dravid (36) and Sachin Tendulkar (51) are ahead of him.

Kohli also equalled Hashim Amla’s record of hitting the fastest 50 international centuries, reaching the landmark in his 348th innings.

Coming to the game, it ended in a thrilling draw. Sri Lanka were reeling at 75 for 7 in pursuit of an improbable 231 before bad light came to their rescue.

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