7 interesting facts you didn't know about Virat Kohli's double centuries

Records tumbled as Indian captain Virat Kohli scored his seventh double hundred against South Africa in the second Test. He became only the fourth captain to score a century in his 50th Test as captain. He also became the first Indian batsman to score 40 international centuries as captain, scoring 21 in ODIs and 19 in Tests. He is just one behind Ricky Ponting, who ended his career with 41 centuries as captain of Australia.

Here's a look at certain interesting facts that you didn't know about Virat Kohli's seven double centuries.

#1 Virat Kohli's first six double hundreds came in a span of 18 months- July 2016 to December 2017

From July 2016 to December 2017, Virat Kohli scored a total of six double hundreds. This purple patch also included two back-to-back double hundreds within a span of 10 days against Sri Lanka in November and December of 2017. He scored 213 at Nagpur and later scored his then highest individual score of 243 at his home ground Firoz Shah Kotla at Delhi.

#2 He was the player of the match on four occasions out of the six when he scored a double hundred

Virat Kohli's first two double hundreds, against West Indies and New Zealand weren't enough to win the player of the match awards. Ravichandran Ashwin walked away with the prize after on both occasions. Against West Indies, while Kohli was busy piling on the runs en route his 200, Ashwin took full advantage of the demoralized West Indies bowlers and scored a well crafted hundred. He returned to take seven wickets in the second innings to complete an excellent all-round performance.

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#3 Out of the total 1560 runs scored in double hundreds, only 30 came through sixes

A free-flowing player who scores fours and sixes at will, Virat Kohli definitely took a leaf out of Sachin Tendulkar's book while scoring those daddy double-hundreds. In his seven double hundreds, Kohli has only hit 5 sixes. In the era of the hard-hitting and increasing influence of T20 cricket on the longer formats of the game, Virat Kohli showed why he adores Test cricket and continues to follow in foot-steps of idol Sachin Tendulkar. In his first four double tons, he only hit a combined total of just one six!

In the 2003-04 tour of Australia, Sachin Tendulkar had scores of 0, 1, 37, 0, and 44 in five Test innings. He had nightmares of getting out on the off stump while attempting a cover drives. Apparently, he had no clue where his off-stump was. On January 4, 2004, he made 241 and didn't play a single cover drive. Such was his control.

#4 Ravichandran Ashwin took 50 wickets in six Test matches (excluding this match) when Kohli scored a double hundred

You can call it a coincidence, serendipity or an actual captain's influence, but whenever Virat Kohli has scored a double hundred, Ravichandran Ashwin's performance with the bat and ball has been top-notch, even winning man-of-the-match awards on two instances and picking up five five-wicket hauls in the process. His best bowling figures when Kohli scored a double ton read 7 for 83, 6 for 81, 7 for 59, 6 for 112, 6 for 55, 4 for 73, 4 for 67, 4 for 63 and 3 for 90.

#5 Innings against South Africa was the only instance when he remained unbeaten after scoring a double hundred

On all occasions after scoring a double ton, Virat Kohli got out except yesterday when he remained unbeaten on 254 runs, his personal best against South Africa. While trying to increase the run-rate and gather as many runs, he was dismissed leg before wicket three times, clean bowled once and caught twice when he smashed double hundreds.

#6 He now stands fourth in the list of most double hundreds scored in a career

Don Bradman

Virat Kohli stands fourth now with seven double hundreds. He is behind only to Sir Don Bradman (12), Kumar Sangakkara (11) and Brian Lara (9). Sir Don played only 52 Tests for his 12 double centuries at an astonishing average of 99.94. Sangakkara and Lara played more than 100 Test matches to compile their respective numbers of double centuries while Kohli has taken 81 tests to score seven at an average of 55.10, second-best amongst the top four. As captain, he bettered his own record to seven double tons.

#7 He became the fourth-fastest to reach 7000 runs in Test cricket

Sir Garry Sobers

Virat became the fourth-faster ever to score 7000 runs in Test cricket in terms of matches played. Virender Sehwag and Sir Garry Sobers achieved this feat in only 79 Tests while Wally Hammond of England took 80 matches to score those runs. With his ability to rotate the strike and play attacking shots, Virat took only 81 Test matches to complete 7000 runs, four less than Sachin Tendulkar.