After a wait of 1205 days, Virat Kohli finally registered a Test century, bringing up three figures on day four of the fourth Test against Australia in Ahmedabad.

Kohli brought up Test century No.28 after flicking Nathan Lyon for a single and helping India push towards a crucial first-innings lead. There was a gap of 41 innings between his last century and this one, with the previous one coming over three years ago against Bangladesh in November 2019.

Virat Kohli scored a sublime 136 in India’s only innings at the Eden Gardens and helped his team secure an innings and 46-run victory. “600kg Gorilla off his back,” Ravi Shastri boomed on commentary as Kohli raised his bat, then removed his helmet with a smile and kissed his necklace in relief to a standing ovation from the Ahmedabad crowd. He now has eight Test hundreds against Australia, second-most, on par with Sunil Gavaskar on a list that is topped by Sachin Tendulkar, who has 11.

Virat Kohli slams his 75th International Century in style

The star batsman resumed on his overnight score of 59 after he got his first Test half-century since January 2022 on day three on a pitch favouring the batsmen. Kohli, 34, went through an extended lean patch last year, failing to reach three figures in more than 1,000 days. He quit as Twenty20 skipper in late 2021 and in January 2022 was sacked from the one-day captaincy and gave up leading the Test side, too.

The long wait has finally ended for Virat Kohli 🔥#WTC23 | #INDvAUS | 📝 https://t.co/VJoLfVSeIF pic.twitter.com/JGZcVsHvHj— ICC (@ICC) March 12, 2023

But he hit his first ton after 1,020 days in the Asia Cup T20 tournament in September last year and hasn’t looked back since. Kohli finished the T20 World Cup in Australia as the leading run-scorer and then hit three ODI centuries, including two — 113 and 166 not out — against Sri Lanka in January