Indian skipper Virat Kohli. (Photo: Surjeet Yadav /IANS)
Indian skipper Virat Kohli. (Photo: Surjeet Yadav /IANS)

Senior Indian batter Virat Kohli is just 40 runs shy of completing 2000 Test runs against England. The former Indian skipper will have the opportunity to unlock the achievement in the one-off Test between England and India in Birmingham this weekend.

Kohli might be going through a tough phase in his career but the records can never be overlooked to define the guile of the Indian prolific batter. Kohli has hit five of his 27 Test hundreds against England.

Virat Kohli vs England in Test cricket

The Indian run machine finished twice as the leading run-scorer of the India-England Test series. He scored 655 in eight innings in 2016 at home followed by a massive comeback in 2018 in England with 593 runs in 10 innings. Kohli was the victim of James Anderson in the 2014 tour but came with his homework against his nemesis in India’s 2018 tour of England.

Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli. Credits: Twitter.

Kohli has amassed 218 runs at an average of 31.14 in the four Tests against England in 2021 with a couple of fifties in the series.  Kohli’s record against England in the red-ball format is 1960 runs in 48 innings at an average of 43.56 with nine fifties and five centuries.

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Virat Kohli to join Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar in scoring 2000 Test runs against England

Kohli would become the third Indian batter after Sachin Tendulkar (2535) and Sunil Gavaskar (2483) to score 2000 Test runs against England. Kohli has scored the most runs of his Test career against England, his next best performance is against Australia – 1682 runs in 36 innings at 48.06.

It has been around two and a half years and the question is on every cricket fan’s mind – when will Kohli register another three-figure mark in his international career. Kohli scored his last century against Bangladesh during the Day-Night Test at Eden Gardens in November 2019.

Virat Kohli.
Virat Kohli. Credits: Twitter

Since then Kohli played 17 Tests, 21 ODIs and 25 T20 Internationals but still, he is in search of his 71st international hundred. He is only behind Australia’s Ricky Ponting (71) and Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar (100) in the list of most international hundreds.

Kohli will be key in India’s batting unit sans Rohit Sharma in the series-decider match against England at Edgbaston in Birmingham. During India’s tour of England in 2018, Kohli scored 149 & 51 in the Birmingham Test but India lost by 31 runs.

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