Three veteran Indian stars have a golden opportunity to rewrite the record books during their Test tour of South Africa. India is hoping to overcome a tough history in the region—having won only three times in six previous tours—to claim their first series victory on South African soil. Alongside this team ambition, Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Mohammed Shami are all chasing significant personal milestones.
Virat Kohli is on the brink of a massive career milestone, needing only three more matches to reach 100 Test games for India. Provided he stays fit, he will join an elite group of only 12 Indian cricketers to have played a century of Tests. On top of that, Kohli is pushing toward the 8,000-run mark in the longest format of the game.
With 7,801 runs currently on the board, Kohli needs just 199 more to hit 8,000, a feat that seems well within reach over the next six innings. At the same time, Ravichandran Ashwin is hunting for eight more wickets to climb to second place on India's all-time Test wicket-takers list. If the seasoned off-spinner bags those eight scalps, he will surpass Kapil Dev's historic record of 434 wickets.
India's premier fast bowler, Mohammed Shami, is also chasing a big number: his 200th Test wicket. Having already taken 195 wickets in 54 matches at an average of 27.56, he needs only five more to reach the century mark. Doing so would make him the 11th Indian bowler overall and the 5th Indian pacer to achieve this, following in the footsteps of Kapil Dev, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, and Javagal Srinath.