Virat Kohli has emerged as a player who is destined to make it to the highest level and stay there, writes espnstar.com's columnist Boria Majumdar.

It started poorly for Virat Kohli with scores of 11 and 0 at Melbourne. It worsened at Sydney with yet another failure in the second innings. Just when everyone was asking for Kohli to be dropped at Perth did he make the much-needed mental adjustment.  By his own admission, he was in a difficult mental space after Sydney and had to repeatedly tell himself that his eight international centuries in one-day limited-overs cricket was proof of his ability.

He’d done enough to make it to the highest level. It must have been doubly difficult to do the convincing act because his team was falling apart in front of him and the series was going from bad to worse. And then all of a sudden in what was the most difficult pitch to bat on in the entire series, Virat Kohli looked like coming together as a Test match player. He was prepared to grit it out, offer the choicest of words to the Aussies in response to provocation and was prepared to earn his every run.

Kohli was learning the hard way and was moving from being a rookie to one who will perhaps have the onerous task of leading an Indian turnaround in the future.

Kohli is the perfect example of the new generation Indian Test cricketer. He is uninhibited, is great press conference material and is gradually doing it all to win the media over to his side. In fact, the media just loved him at the end of the third-day press conference in Adelaide. He wasn’t afraid to open up and stir up a controversy. His candid confession that Ben Hilfenhaus had no business to abuse him when on 99 and that he had retaliated harder as a result was taken well even by the Australian media. “To be able to give it back verbally and then with the bat is even better”, suggested Kohli.

The most important part is the ability to give it back with the bat. Once you are able to do that consistently over a period of time, the opposition too starts to respect your ability and starts to hold itself back. If the first innings at Perth was a sign of things to come, the second innings effort was proof of Virat Kohli maturing to a significant extent. With his more illustrious counterparts collapsing around him, it must have been a huge mental challenge to stand there amidst the carnage. Kohli had done it admirably at the WACA and was the tenth man out in the Indian second innings.

He was again the tenth man out at Adelaide but this time he had kicked on and scored his maiden international century. It will certainly rank as a career-defining century for the youngster and will go a long way to making him feel at home in the Test arena. A century in Australia in his very first tour, Virat Kohli will go back to India a month later believing he has the ability to be around for a long time at the highest form of the game. Young and quick, Kohli has that extra micro-second that our ageing greats - Laxman and Dravid - seem to be lacking in Australia.

And with the zeal and hunger to back him all the way, he is the only batting-plus for India in an otherwise pathetic series. Just as Sachin Tendulkar’s 114 at Perth in 1992 is still spoken about as his coming of age century, it may well be that Virat Kohli’s century at Adelaide has a profound impact on his Test career.

Two things stood out for me with regards to Virat Kohli in Perth and Adelaide. The first was his ability to forget. He was able to concentrate after getting beaten on numerous occasions at Perth and this is a great sign in difficult batting conditions. It is indicative of a positive mindset and should serve him well going forward. The second was his ability to coax himself into a zone of confidence. When things weren’t going his way at Melbourne and Sydney, Kohli withdrew into a cocoon and pushed himself that much harder.

It was a huge mental challenge and his ability to conquer the phase of self doubt has resulted in him becoming a much better Test player by the end of the Test series. It is now time to step up one more peddle and assume the mantle of senior batsman when India next plays New Zealand at home in September. We need a young leader and Virat has shown the promise to be the chosen one.