Virat Kohli struck his 19th hundred in Tests as India maintained the upper hand against Sri Lanka in the second match at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur on Sunday.
Kohli reached his fourth Test hundred in 2017 in just 130 balls when he took a single off Lakmal. He struck 10 boundaries in his innings to take the attack to the opposition.
He scored his 51st career hundred in international cricket. He had equaled Sunil Gavaskar's record for most hundreds (11) as an India Test captain in the last Test in Kolkata. He has now scored four centuries in Tests in 2017. He has managed to score 10 international hundreds (six in ODIs and four in Tests) in the calendar year of 2017.
The previous best was Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith with nine hundreds. The former Australian captain had managed the feat on two occasions in consecutive years, in 2005 and 2006. Graeme Smith did it in 2005. The Indian captain on the other hand has scored more hundreds than fifties as captain. He has 22 hundreds as compared to his 16 fifties.
The Indian captain has been on a rampaging run, decimating opposition bowling attacks for fun. He had scored double centuries in four successive Test series. He started with a 200 against West Indies and then scored 211 against New Zealand back in October last year.
But that was just the start of his dominance at home as he continued his form against England with a 235 and then took Bangladesh bowlers to the cleaners for a relatively quick-fire 204.
He stumbled somewhat against Australia in the following Border-Gavaskar Trophy, finishing the series with only 46 runs from three matches. He bounced back again with an unbeaten 103 against Sri Lanka in their backyard.
In the reverse tour from Sri Lanka, the hosts were under the weather in Kolkata. Kohli was dismissed for a duck (his fifth in Test cricket) in the first innings but roared back in the second with a scintillating 104 not out.
The Indian captain, who is the leading run-getter in the ODIs this year, also has six hundreds in the 50-overs format. The 29-year-old also has nine fifties across formats.
In ODIs, Kohli reached his 32nd hundred in the 50-overs format in the first match against New Zealand, surpassing Ricky Ponting in the list of most hundreds. He is only behind the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar who has 49.
Kohli has also equalled Rahul Dravid's record for most 50-plus scores in a calendar year in the ongoing second Test. Dravid, who had 19 scores of 50 or more, achieved the feat 2006.
Dravid had accumulated 2014 runs from 39 matches (12 Tests and 27 ODIs) across all formats 11 years ago. The Wall hit one hundred and eight fifties in ODIs and three tons and seven half-centuries in Tests that year.