India vs Australia 3rd Test: Virat Kohli Calls Anushka Sharma ‘An Inspiration’ Ahead Of Landmark Game

In 199 matches at home so far, Virat Kohli has scored 10,829 runs in 221 innings at an average of 58.22. He has scored 34 centuries and 51 half-centuries at home, with the best score of 254 not out.

Source: Twitter

Former India captain Virat Kohli achieved a massive landmark when he crossed 25,000 runs in international cricket in the second Test against Australia in Delhi last month. As India eye a 3-0 lead in the four-match Test series, Kohli will play in a landmark 200th international game at home when the third Test gets underway in Indore on Wednesday (March 1).

Kohli has taken centre-stage in India’s domination at home ever since he hit the international cricket scene in 2008. In 199 matches at home so far, he has scored 10,829 runs in 221 innings at an average of 58.22. He has scored 34 centuries and 51 half-centuries at home, with the best score of 254 not out.

Ahead of his landmark game, Kohli called his wife and Bollywood star Anushka Sharma his inspiration. Sharing how he draws strength, and inspiration from Anushka’s motherhood journey, Kohli said in a RCB Podcast, “I have gotten a lot of inspiration from home. We have had a child. It has been an unbelievably life-changing and transforming process, for parents yes but for a mother especially. For a mother, it's life changing completely. And how she has been so strong through it and how she has been able to take all the challenges that have come in her way. And I have seen everything. I have seen the transformation happen. That gave me so much strength and inspiration to say what I am experiencing is not even 5 per cent of what she has gone through.

“It is selfless, it is unconditional. You also need to put things in the right perspective. You can't make your issues which seem huge to you in the forefront and make them into something you know catastrophic going on, wherein you realise that this is life. I play a sport, this is my profession but when I see the transformation that happened with her, that for me is life. That for me is far bigger and far, I mean you can't even put it in the same bracket. It’s not even comparable because it is literally your life being given to another life which has to grow up in front of you," he added.

Kohli and Anushka tied the knot on December 11 in Italy and are one of the most loved celebrity couples. The duo was blessed with Vamika on January 11, 2021.

Virat Kohli calls Anushka his "inspiration"

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— ANI Digital (@ani_digital) February 28, 2023

However this time around, the pressure will be on Kohli to perform as he has been struggling for runs in Test cricket since 2020. His numbers for 2020 (116 runs in three matches at an average of 19.33 with one fifty in six innings), 2021 (536 runs in 11 matches at an average of 28.21 with four fifties in 19 innings) and 2022 (265 in six matches at an average of 26.50 with one fifty in 11 innings) are too underwhelming for someone of his stature.

Kohli looked in complete control during his short knocks of 44 and 20 runs in both innings of the second Test in Delhi and Team India would hope that their biggest batting star will end his three-year-long drought of big runs, which will also boost India’s chances to qualify for ICC World Test Championship finals, to be played in London from June 7 onwards.

Kohli has managed 76 runs in three innings in this series at an average of 25.33. India will also aim to overcome the Australian challenge at Indore to make it 3-0 and secure qualification for the WTC final. The Royal Challengers Bangalore batter though hasn’t crossed 50 at home against Australia since 2013. In the last two series at home against the Aussies, he has made 122 runs at an average of just 15.25.