Virat Kohli scored a hundred, his 30th in Test cricket, on Day 3 of the first Test between Australia and India in Perth. Kohli went on a rampage in the last session of the day to bring up his 81st century in international cricket.
It was believed that Kohli was instructed by captain Jasprit Bumrah and head coach Gautam Gambhir to press the accelerating button as they were thinking about declaring the innings to put Australia in the middle for half an hour.
Kohli and Nitish Kumar Reddy hit fours and sixes to increase the lead to 533 runs. Then, India took three quick wickets to leave Australia at 12/3. According to Jatin Sapru, Virat informed him that he sent the message to the dressing room to find out about the plans.
“I had a conversation with Virat Kohli, and he told me that a message was sent to the dressing room from his side to know about the declaration plans. ‘I was batting on 55 when I decided to know about the plans. I sent a message, and when I came to know that 22 overs were left, I decided to go for the shots. It was important for us to give some overs to our bowlers to have a go at the Australian batters. My only focus was to help the team.’
“Virat was sure what he wanted to achieve and was never targeting his 100. This is what makes him a great player,” Jatin Sapru said on Star Sports while talking to Deep Dasgupta and Cheteshwar Pujara.