'India will become world's No.1 Test team': Allan Donald recalls Virat Kohli's promise

Former South African pacer Allan Donald has revealed how skipper Virat Kohli had promised him of making Team India the world's number one team in the longest format of the game i.e. Test cricket. 

Virat Kohli was named India's full-time Test captain when his predecessor MS Dhoni had announced his shocking retirement from red-ball cricket back in December 2014 after the 'Boxing Day' Test match against Australia at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. 

Allan Donald recalls Virat Kohli's promise

"I remember Virat's words in 2015 when he said to me India will become the world's number one Test team and he wasn't wrong. He knew where he was going. He said: 'I want this to be the fittest team, I want us to be the greatest team on the planet, knowing that we can play away from home, knowing we can beat anyone and that's going to take a very good bowling attack to do so", said Allan Donald while interacting in a video on YouTube channel Cricket Life Stories.

In 2015, the Virat Kohli-led Indian team had steamrolled the then mighty South African team 3-0 in the four-match home Test series after the Proteas had got the better of MS Dhoni's team in the limited-overs series. Under Kohli, Team India have not lost a Test series at home. In fact, their last Test series defeat on home soil dates back to the 2012/13 season where Alistair Cook's England had registered a 2-1 win in the four-match series. Dhoni was India's regular captain back then.

Under Virat's captaincy, Team India registered their maiden Test series win Down Under with a 2-1 (4) win over Australia. The batting megastar had captained India in the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship final in June this year.

However, he could not win his first-ever ICC title as the Kane Williamson-led New Zealand won the one-off Test match by eight wickets on the Reserve Day. The Kiwis currently occupy the 'Numero Uno' spot in the ICC Test Rankings.

While Kohli & Co. are at the second position in the Test Rankings, they currently occupy the top spot in the ICC World Test Championship 2021-2023 (WTC) points table as of now. 

India registered their first points in the ICC WTC 2021-2023 points table with a spectacular performance at Lord's last Monday and by the virtue of this win, Virat Kohli & Co. take the top spot in the WTC points table with 14 points and a 116.67 PCT (Percentage of points), England find themselves at the third spot with just two points to their tally and a PCT of 16.67.

Meanwhile, the West Indies have taken the second position for now. The Windies have collected 12 points with a PCT of exactly 100 courtesy of a valiant batting performance from tail-ender Kemar Roach in the recently-concluded West Indies vs Pakistan first Test match in Jamaica last weekend which went right down to the wire.