Virat Kohli is the most successful visitor to the Adelaide Oval. Will Thursday bring more success? (File)
Virat Kohli could not have asked for a better time to reunite with the South Australian coast that he has long relished throughout his international career. The Adelaide Oval, the picture postcard cricket ground from the Southern Hemisphere, is a place where the modern maestro has wielded his willow with utmost clarity and control over proceedings.
Kohli’s love affair with Adelaide has been well documented throughout his career, with significant landmarks unfurling at crucial junctures at the ground. Incidentally, a chubby 24-year-old Delhi batter’s first Test hundred was etched in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy tour of 2011-12 in Adelaide, a massive lifeline for Kohli, who several experts wanted to be dumped at that point from the Test XI.
Four years later, Kohli would turn up as Test captain in the absence of an injured MS Dhoni at the same venue and crack epochal tons – 169 and 144 – and nearly pull India all the way through to a dramatic win before being denied by his fledgling teammates. A majestic run in the 2016 limited-overs tour, prior to the T20 World Cup that year, would witness Kohli reel in more runs at the venue, prompting his skipper, Dhoni, to make a prophecy in a press conference.
Dhoni had seen Rohit Sharma’s world-record-breaking score of 264 coming in 2014 before it actually panned out in Kolkata. He had also foreseen the rise of ‘Sir’ Ravindra Jadeja. Naturally, a Kohli prediction was in the offing.
After losing a hard-fought ODI series 1-4 in 2016, India began their T20I leg with an emphatic win over the Aussies in Adelaide, with Kohli remaining unbeaten on 90, his then-best score in the format. Soon after, Dhoni would proclaim that his then-vice-captain would have a stand named after him at multiple Australian venues, let alone Adelaide!
“I think in Adelaide, they’ll be naming a stand after him, the amount of runs he’s scoring. By the time he ends his career, quite a few Australian grounds will have his stand.”” Dhoni said.
“There is something about this ground you know. Whenever I step into this stadium, there is something that really sinks with me,” Kohli would say attesting his Adelaide in a BCCI video.
“Naturally, I feel wonderful coming here. All my nerves calm down pretty nicely. It is just about the whole atmosphere of the new stands and the crowd in your ears. It is a wonderful stadium to play as a cricketer, and when you have big crowds, it feels great.”
Kohli’s second World Cup century came in his 2015 tournament opener in a high-octane clash against Pakistan at the same venue. He would also crack a century upon his return in an ODI win at the venue against the Aussies in 2019.
Overall, Kohli aggregates in Adelaide are the highest for a visiting batter – 975 runs at the venue across formats, averaging 65.00 in 17 innings with five centuries and four fifties.
In Tests outside his home ground at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, Kohli’s shares are the highest in Adelaide, recording 527 runs in five matches with three centuries – the most he has at any ground – and a half-century.
In three T20Is, Kohli was only dismissed once in Adelaide while racking up 204 runs with three consecutive fifty-plus scores!
Limited to only four ODI appearances before Thursday’s reunion, Kohli has racked up 244 runs at an average of 61.00. With an eight-ball duck hanging over him, Kohli could be in store to make a roaring return at his favourite playground, a home away from home.
WATCH: Kohli’s 39th ODI hundred at the Adelaide Oval in 2019
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