Kohli premieres his patience in Indore

Because he had to dive in to make his ground and then wait for the third umpire's decision to make sure he had completed his 100th run, these were the most subdued celebrations for a Virat Kohli Test hundred. It was fitting because Kohli had just finished one of his more subdued hundreds. There were only two cover-driven boundaries, one to get off the mark, the other after reaching his fifty. His other favourite shot, the flick, was used with a straight bat, to get singles down to long-on.

Generally Kohli doesn't do subdued. He has shown he is an excellent frontrunner who can be near impossible to contain, not somebody who lets the bowler have his time and then change gears. This is not strictly a criticism; every team needs different kind of batsmen. Everybody cannot react to good bowling the same way as Cheteshwar Pujara does. A bowling side has to fear the counter-attacker too. When you know a slight error will be punished, you tend to make more errors. Kohli is that batsman who can capitalise on a good start and sometimes counterattack during testing periods.

Steve Waugh once said that when Sachin Tendulkar came in to bat, the chant of Sa-chin Sa-chin and the noise every time he middled the ball could be disorienting. Waugh said Tendulkar would have run away with the advantage by the time he realised what was happening. In that aspect of his game, Kohli can be compared to Tendulkar, but Tendulkar could buckle down when required. Kohli, as was evidenced in the first innings in Kolkata, put too much of a premium on dominating the bowlers early, of not letting them bowl to a plan. That's perhaps why this is the slowest of his 10 centuries since February 2013.

Test cricket is also about adjustments, about evolving all the time. From how lovingly Kohli speaks about Test cricket, it matters too much to him to be just batting in one tone. In front of 18000-plus people in Indore, at a ground making its Test debut, Kohli premiered his patience.

New Zealand are not the most penetrative attack in this condition, but they have shown they can make it difficult by following their game-plans. This pitch - with less bounce - somewhat took the bouncer out of the equation, but they bowled with discipline to reduce India to 60 for 2 when Kohli came in, and 100 for 3 with Pujara's wicket. These are situations from where India have lost quick wickets in almost all their home Tests since Kohli took over, asking the lower order to bail them out. But Kohli, in partnership with Ajinkya Rahane, made sure the bowlers could relax.

This was the least difficult of the three pitches, but 60 for 2 and 100 for 3 can look much worse in no time. New Zealand had managed to bring the scoring rate back under three after the quick start when they first looked to attack Kohli with the short ball, just five deliveries into his innings. When the deep square leg went back and the first bouncer didn't rise too high, New Zealand went back to testing him through denial.

That denial was strong, but Kohli's resolve matched it. In partnership, Jeetan Patel and Jimmy Neesham kept testing him either side of lunch. Neesham kept bowling well outside off, Patel kept changing his trajectory smartly. A flat ball didn't always mean you could go back to it, but Kohli kept getting outside the line whenever beaten in the flight. Patience half-broke when Kohli chased a wide shortish ball from Neesham with a vertical bat, but by now the catching men were sparse.

Neesham had set the base up for another tandem, between Patel and Mitchell Santner. The latter bowled Pujara with one that turned from middle. The two kept asking questions. Kohli's strike rate kept dipping, but he didn't go looking to manufacture shots. In the 41st over, Santner turned one past Kohli's edge, but the batsman did not follow the ball with his hands, which is what happens when you are unsure. Kohli was back to a flatter lbw ball next ball but managed to get an inside edge. In Santner's next over, Kohli saw flat trajectory, went back, ended up pushing at a full ball in front of his body, but he still didn't look edgy.

Then, after waiting and waiting, on 28 off 72, Kohli finally got a short ball from Santner. There was no over-eagerness to hit it hard. He just went back, used a vertical bat and punched it past midwicket. There he had seen off a tough passage of play, and had now cashed in a loose ball he had earned. There were minor smaller tests to follow. New Zealand finally managed to get a ball changed, and they reversed it for a while, but Kohli offered them no chances. The new ball was taken as soon as it became available, but Kohli was comfortable against it.

The manner in which Kohli went from 39 off 99 to 103 off 191 without playing a shot in anger would have reassured him that he doesn't always need to go out of his way to look for runs, which is what has resulted in some of his early dismissals. That if he stays there for long enough he can get those runs organically. This could be an important step in the evolution of Kohli the Test batsman.