India vs South Africa: Virat Kohli Looks To Surpass Dravid, Sehwag In Elite List
Virat Kohli has scored 1236 runs in 14 matches so far against South Africa in Tests.
The 'final frontier' is here as India take on South Africa in the bid to win their first-ever Test series in the Rainbow Nation. In 8 attempts before, India have only managed to draw the Test series against the Proteas once, while suffering defeats in the other seven. While a series triumph will be the Indian team's focus, the talismanic Virat Kohli would be eager to go past the likes of Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid in the list of most Test runs scored by an Indian in South Africa.
Kohli, at present, is slotted at the No. 4 spot with 1236 runs to his name in 14 matches. In comparison, Rahul Dravid scored 1252 runs in 21 matches and 1306 runs in 15 matches. Sachin Tendulkar leads the list with 1741 runs to his name in 25 matches.
The two-match Test rubber, starting in Centurion on the Boxing Day, will be India's ninth away series in the Rainbow Nation since 1992, and captain Rohit will have an onerous task of traversing a difficult terrain in order to conquer what has always been dubbed the team's 'final frontier'.
However, for the action to start at Supersport Park, the heavy rains predicted on the first two days need to subside.
The Centurion track offers variable bounce and is one of the fastest in the region. And that makes up for a compelling contest between bat and ball in relatively cooler and windy conditions in an open ground where it can jag around a bit.
In the last 50 over World Cup, skipper Rohit, at best would have emulated Kapil Dev and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, but if he and his men manage to pull off a coup in this country, he would stand first among the equals.
Mohammed Azharuddin (1992) failed, so did Sachin Tendulkar (1996) and Sourav Ganguly (2001). Rahul Dravid (2006-07), Dhoni (2010-11 and 2013-14) won Test matches, and so did Virat Kohli (2018-19 and 2021-22) but none of them could win the elusive series in South Africa.
So Rohit will have a job at hand and a win might just be the much-needed soothing balm required to heal the World Cup wounds even though the scars will remain.
With PTI inputs
India Cricket Team
South Africa Cricket Team
Virat Kohli