Former India captain Virat Kohli’s 100th Test match will be played behind closed doors, confirmed Punjab Cricket Association on Saturday, 26 February. The decision comes in the lieu of fresh Covid-19 cases in and around Mohali and the PCA not wanting to take any sort of risk as the Indian cricketers look to move on to the Indian Premier League season right after the Test series.
Kohli's 100th Test match has met with confusion in the last few months, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India lacking communication with the state associations. Earlier, the 100th Test match was speculated to be held in Bengaluru, a venue that Kohli has called home since the start of his IPL career. The Karnataka Cricket Association had then come out with a clarification stating that they had not been informed of such developments which later turned out to be true. The match was shifted to Mohali after the rescheduling of the series and now it has come to fore that the talismanic Indian captain would not have any spectators while he takes a field in a career milestone.
Kohli has been looking for that elusive hundred in international cricket - his 71st in the international arena. Kohli last crossed the three-figure mark back in November 2019 against Bangladesh in Kolkata, while his last Test hundred came against West Indies in the same year. The right hander has been in good touch off late, scoring three fifties in the South Africa series, once coming agonisingly close to his hundred in the second Test match.
At the moment, the former captain is taking a well deserved break from the T20I format.