Virat Kohli remains on course to smash records, sets eyes on final India-England Test

With the fourth and final Test of the India-England series set to commence from Thursday, there will be a lot on the line as the two teams lock horns at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. While India has set its eyes on the World Test Championship finale at the Lord's, captain Virat Kohli will be raring to notch up his much-awaited 71st century along with the other achievements that he is nearing. When the Indian captain takes the field on Thursday, he will equal MS Dhoni's record of most matches as skipper of Team India in Tests. 

Moreover, the swashbuckling right-handed batsman is just 17 runs away from  12,000 international runs as a captain - a record held by Australia's Ricky Ponting and South Africa's Graeme Smith only. While Ponting has 15,440 runs to his name as an Australian skipper, Smith had notched up 14,878 runs as Proteas' captain before hanging up his boots.

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Can Kohli notch up a century?

As fans eagerly await King Kohli's 71st century, and if he manages to bring that up in the fourth Test against England, the Indian skipper will have surpassed Ricky Ponting for most centuries as a captain. It is important to note that Virat Kohli failed to smash a century in 2020, making it the only year in his career so far where he has not crossed the 100-run mark. If he does score a century at the Narendra Modi Stadium, it would be his 42nd ton while leading India.

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If skipper Kohli leads India to victory, he will have equalled Clive Lloyd's record of 36 Test victories and will also become the joint-fourth on the list of Test captains. The skipper is yet to bring up a 100 in the ongoing series and is the highest run-scorer, behind Joe Root, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin. 

Rahane provides major pitch hint 

With just two days to go for the final Test of the series against England, India's Vice-Captain Ajinkya Rahane provided a major insight onto the pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium for the fourth game. Rahane has stated that the pitch looks similar to the one used in the third game which ended within two days. However, he maintained that he does not know whether the pitch will behave the same with the red ball as it did with the pink ball in the day-night Test. 

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India's vice-captain in Tests, Rahane also hit out at critics questioning his consistency with a blunt answer. The Mumbai-lad expressed that he had stepped up and performed whenever the team has needed him to. Notably, Rahane had scored a valiant century against Australia recently in the Boxing Day Test as India staged a heroic comeback and had also stitched a brilliant partnership with Rohit Sharma in the second Test of the ongoing series which the hosts won. 

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