Virat Kohli Surpasses Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar With Long-Awaited Fifty Against Australia

It was a good outing for Virat Kohli on Day 3 of the fourth Test match between India and Australia in Ahmedabad as the star batsman scored his first Test half-century in almost 14 months. The last time Kohli scored a fifty in the longest format of the game was back in January 2022 against South Africa. In the process, Kohli also became the fifth Indian cricketer to score 4000 runs at home after Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag. He was the third-fastest to reach the milestone after Sehwag and Tendulkar but became the one with the best average (58.82).

Shubman Gill gave ample display of his immense talent with a stylish hundred but India's batting unit didn't fully press home the advantage, ending the third day at 289 for three against Australia.

Gill, who batted for nearly six hours scored a chanceless 128 off 235 balls, hit 12 sweetly-timed boundaries apart from a lofted six off Nathan Lyon to justify his selection in playing XI ahead of KL Rahul but India scored only 256 runs in 90 overs.

The hosts are still 191 runs behind Australia's first innings total of 480.

Leading the series 2-1, India need a 3-1 series win to qualify for the World Test Championship final.

If India lose this match and Sri Lanka win their ongoing series against New Zealand 2-0 then the island nation will qualify for the WTC final against Australia.

In case India play a draw, and Sri Lanka fail to win 2-0, the WTC final will be between India and Australia in June at the Oval.

All eyes will be on Virat Kohli (59 batting off 128 balls), who looked purposeful and confident during his two hour plus stay at the crease, on the third day. There was no celebration after completion of his 29th half-century in Test cricket.