With his dismissal for 4 on Saturday, India captain Virat Kohli finished the year 2020 without an international hundred, a first since his debut year in international cricket. Kohli will return home from the tour following the series opener to be with his wife as the couple awaits the birth of their first child in January. This sees Kohli end with the highest individual score of 89 this calendar year.
Kohli also looked good for a big score in the first innings in Adelaide but was run out for 74 after a mix-up with Ajinkya Rahane. Overall, he has scored 70 centuries across formats and is third in the list of most hundreds at the international level behind Sachin Tendulkar (100) and Ricky Ponting (71).
However, it must be noted that Kohli was a part of only 9 ODI matches, 3 Test and 10 T20Is this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Before this Australia tour, the last Test that India had played came in February during their tour of New Zealand.
Kohli’s last century in international cricket, as well as Tests, came in November last year when he scored 136 against Bangladesh during the historic day-night Test at the Eden Gardens. It was India’s first-ever day-night Test. The century drought means Kohli has gone an incredible 392 days without scoring a century in international cricket.
India came up with a disastrous performance in the Adelaide Test as they were all out for just 36 to register their lowest score in Tests. The previous lowest total for India was 42 which came against England in 1974. Not a single batsman managed to touch the double-digit mark with Mayank Agarwal’s 9 being the highest score.
Josh Hazlewood was the star of the show as he picked up 5 wickets for just 8 runs while Pat Cummins picked up 4 wickets. Both the teams will play three more Tests before India return home and prepare for the home series against England.