Almost half and decade back Rahul Dravid was about to play his 100th Test match in Mumbai against England and there was a buzz around that game being special for ‘The Wall’. Typically, Dravid who is now the head coach of the Indian team played down the hype and spoke about Sachin Tendulkar who was to become the most capped Indian in that match. In the pre-match press conference, Dravid was asked a question on whether Tendulkar wasn’t as big a hero as he was a few years back.“He still is a very big hero. But a lot of new young kids come through, there’s a new excitement about youngsters coming through and that’s the circle of life. When Sachin was a kid there was a lot of interest in him, now people seem to know everything about him, so there’s an interest in the young kids coming through. I still think he’s a huge hero and still very respected and adored by so many millions of people,” said Dravid of Tendulkar which incidentally perhaps now holds true for Tendulkar’s true-batting-successor Virat Kohli who too is going to be part of the illustrious 100-Test-club. If Dravid comes to the press conference in Mohali before the first test against Sri Lanka and a similar question is asked on Kohli, his answer might not be any different.EXCLUSIVE | ‘His Will Was Stronger Than His Skill’ – Former Cricketers’ Glowing Tribute to Kohli Ahead of 10If one can take the liberty of paraphrasing Dravid’s words for today’s Kohli, he still is a very big hero despite the emergence of the Rishabh Pants and the Shubman Gills. When Kohli was the captain of the team, there was a lot of hype about him, broadcasters were even dedicating one camera, especially to him (the famous Kohli-cam) as it appeared that people seem to know everything about him. Kohli may not be leading India but he’s a huge hero and still very respected and adored by so many millions of people.“Kohli’s batting is based on the same purity of first principles that were common to Gavaskar and Tendulkar, but his aura is based on a fierce commitment to physical fitness,” England’s former captain Michael Atherton had written in his article for the UK’s The Times in December 2016. Like Sunil Gavaskar in past, Tendulkar’s 100 Test had a sense of inevitability from the very beginning. It was like a reaffirmation of their obvious greatness which was there for everyone to see. Dravid’s journey to this milestone was built around a staggering consistency but with Kohli, it is his Virat personality that stands tallest amongst anything else he has achieved in his career.Virat Kohli 100th Test: A Well-Deserved Century for the Terrific Batter, Competitor and EntertainerIf his aura of invincibility is diminishing of late, then that too is being reflected in the planning by the BCCI for such an iconic milestone for Kohli. Ideally, it should have been Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla (Kohli’s home ground which is not even 250 kms away from Mohali and now known as Arun Jaitley Stadium) rather the PCA stadium; and if that wasn’t possible, Kohli’s second home which is M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, which would eventually host the 2nd Test of the series.Kohli has not reached the triple-figure mark in the last 27 innings which is so unusual for one of the most dominant batters of contemporary cricket. And, that is one of the reasons that Kohli is entering his 100th match with an average just a shade over 50 while Tendulkar was nearly 58, Gavaskar over 52 and even Javed Miandad who was averaging nearly 57 at the corresponding stages of their career. Just a few years back, Kohli taking over Gavaskar’s tally (34) or surpassing Dravid’s (36) was being seen as a mere formality as everyone seem to be convinced that if anyone could break Tendulkar’s 51 tons in Test cricket, it had to be Kohli. Maybe the 100th Test is an occasion to reassess the greatness of Kohli as a Test batter or maybe it could just rejuvenate his love and passion for the five-day format which has given him a distinct image in modern cricket where most players want to focus on the shortest format of the game.One just can’t resist the temptation of quoting another paragraph from Atherton’s article to summarise what Kohli has meant for India in his journey towards the 100th Test. The conclusion is vivid and timeless except the fact that the ‘Bollywood actress’ he was dating is now his wife and mother of his daughter.“In Kohli, India have a cricketer for the 21st century: fit, driven, obsessive, social media savvy, living the reality of the collusion of cricket and celebrity (he is dating a Bollywood actress) and at home in three formats. A generation ago, they wanted to be like Tendulkar. Not anymore.”Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Assembly Elections Live Updates here.