5 important goals that Virat Kohli can achieve on the tour to Australia

Virat Kohli is without a doubt one of the best batsmen in the present generation. He has outshone many of his contemporaries and teammates in the process of breaking one record after another.

2018, just like 2017, or the year before that, or the one before that, has been hugely successful for Kohli as far as his personal form is concerned. He even proved his detractors wrong with a successful tour of England this year, which came on the back of a disappointing outing last time around.

The Indian skipper is already among the great ODI batsmen of all time, and to back that up he became the fastest in the history of the game to cross the 10,000-run mark in white ball cricket. He also became only the first Indian and the 10th overall to score consecutive centuries in three matches.

On his 30th birthday, we look at five things that Kohli will look to achieve in the remaining two months of this calendar year.

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#1 Scoring 3,000 international runs in a calendar year

Kohli could become the first to achieve this feat

Kohli has scored 2,411 runs across formats in the year 2018 and has the opportunity to cross the 3,000-run mark, something that no person in the history of the game has managed to do so far. The world record is currently held by the Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara who had scored 2,868 runs in the year 2014.

India are scheduled to play a three-match T20 series followed by a four-match Test essay in Australia, out of which three will be played this year. Moreover, Australia have been among his favorite opponents over the years.

It is clear, therefore, that there is ample opportunity for Kohli to achieve this feat.

#2 Most centuries in a calendar year

Sachin Tendulkar has 12 centuries in a calendar year which is a record

Kohli can be the man to break another long-standing record of Sachin Tendulkar this year. Currently, Kohli is tied in the second position with the legend Ricky Ponting (2003) with 11 centuries this year.

Tendulkar had scored an astonishing 12 tons way back in the year 1998, which included his famous Sharjah dust storm innings. If Kohli manages to score two more centuries in the remaining three T20s and three Tests this year, he will have eclipsed that mark.

We can expect him to score those two tons in any of the matches that India play this year. That will give him a record which will be very difficult to surpass.

Kohli scored four centuries on the last tour to Australia, and we can expect him to add to that tally this time around.

#3 Score a T20 International ton

Kohli has scored several centuries in IPL, but none in a T20I match

If there is one thing that King Kohli has not done in his career, it has to be scoring a T20 International century for India. This has eluded him in the eight years since he made his debut.

The run machine has an Indian record of four IPL tons, all of which he scored in the year 2016. But he has not been able to replicate that so far in his international career, and has a career-best score of 90 in his 62 matches for India.

Kohli came close to achieving the feat on the 2016 tour of Australia, where India whitewashed the hosts 3-0. This could be his best chance to score a ton as the current Aussie set up looks depleted even though they have a potent bowling attack.

It took Kohli a while to score a T20 ton, and the same could be the case in his international career too. Australia could be the place where he stops the drought.

#4 Dominate the Aussies with the bat

The 2014 Australia tour was the beginning of Kohli's ascendancy to greatness.

In order to achieve the previous landmarks, Kohli will have to dominate the Australian bowling attack. And that's not too difficult a task for him.

The 2014 tour Australia was the making of Kohli as the great player that he is today. In the 4 match Test series that these two great nations played, Kohli scored a whopping 692 runs with a record four tons, and was only behind the then Aussie skipper Steven Smith who had 760 runs to his name.

Kohli had decent support from other batsmen like Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay, but none of them could continue the same vein of form as Kohli did over the course of the four years after that.

Kohli has a wonderful record in Australia so far on his two tours to the nation, and will be looking to do what he does best: dominate the bowling attack.

#5 Win the series in Australia

This is the best chance for India and Kohli to win a series in Australia

Not just India, every team on an away tour has found it tough to win or even do well in recent times. India too have not been a great visiting country, but they have improved considerably by competing well in England and South Africa even though they haven't actually won any series.

Under Kohli's captaincy, India have won a series against the West Indies in the Caribbean. Apart from that, they have won solitary Tests here and there but not an entire series.

But this could be their best chance yet to win Down Under as India have one of their best bowling attacks in recent memory. Also, this Aussie team has one of the weakest batting line-ups in the world, deprived as it is of the services of Steve Smith and David Warner.

Kohli already has a Hall of Fame career. But he may be just halfway through, and we get the feeling there is plenty left up his sleeves.