Virat Kohli who became the 12th Indian to achieve the milestone of playing 100 Tests, said he “never thought” he would come this far and make this landmark appearance.

Having scored only 4 and 15 in his debut Test against the West Indies in 2011, Kohli has come a long way in a decade-long journey in which he has amassed 7962 runs at a stellar average of 50.39 in the longest format.

“I honestly never thought I would play 100 Test matches. It has been a long journey. We played a lot of cricket over the course of playing those 100 Test matches,” Kohli said in a video posted by the BCCI.

“A lot of international cricket. I am just grateful that I’ve been able to make it to 100.”

Kohli will join an elite list of Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma to play 100 Tests.

“God has been kind. I have worked really hard on my fitness. It’s a big moment for me, for my family, for my coach, who is also very happy and very proud of this Test match as long as I am concerned,” Kohli said.

India won the toss at Mohali and elected to bat first.

Indians in the 100-Test club

Player Career span Tests Runs Batting Avg Wickets Bowling Avg
1 S R Tendulkar 1989-2013 200 15921 53.79 46 54.17
2 R Dravid 1996-2012 164 13288 52.31 1 39.00
3 V V S Laxman 1996-2012 134 8781 45.97 2 63.00
4 A Kumble 1990-2008 132 2506 17.77 619 29.65
5 Kapil Dev 1978-1994 131 5248 31.05 434 29.65
6 S M Gavaskar 1971-1987 125 10122 51.12 1 206.00
7 D B Vengsarkar 1976-1992 116 6868 42.13 0  
8 S C Ganguly 1996-2008 113 7212 42.18 32 52.53
9 I Sharma* 2007- 105 785 8.26 311 32.41
10 V Sehwag 2001-2013 104 8586 49.34 40 47.35
11 Harbhajan Singh 1998-2015 103 2225 18.24 417 32.46
12 Virat Kohli* 2011- 100 7962 50.39 0