The India team is one of the top teams in the cricket community. Many of their players have shown amazing performances over the years, and one of them is Virat Kohli. Kohli is a batter known for several achievements, but who exactly is he?
Information about the player
Born on November 5, 1988, in New Delhi, India
Role: Batsman
Batting Style: Right-Handed Bat
Bowling Style: Right-arm medium
Virat Kohli is a cricket player who has become well-known for his batting abilities. Throughout his career, Kohli has made many achievements and often showed his passion for the sport. Even before he became a professional player, Kohli had a passion for cricket.
How It Started
Virat Kohli started playing cricket at a very young age. In 1998, Kohli’s father recognized his potential and had him enrolled in the West Delhi Cricket Academy. Kohli trained at the academy under his coach Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time. In ninth grade, Kohli shifted to Saviour Convent School in Paschim Vihar to advance his cricket practice.
Debut
Kohli made his cricket debut in October 2002 with the Delhi Under-15 team in the 2002-03 Polly Umrigar Trophy and led the team to the next trophy. During that year, he was selected for the Delhi Under-17 team for the 2003-04 Vijay Merchant Trophy where he finished as the highest run-scorer.
After gaining a name in under-15 matches in 2006, Kohli made his debut in the Under-19 team during India’s tour of England. India won both ODI and Test series with Kohli showing superb batting skills. The next year, Kohli made his T20 debut next year and emerged as the highest run-scorer in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs.
International Career Debut
In 2008, Kohli captained the Under-19 Cricket World Cup-winning team. After recovering from a minor injury, Kohli replaced Gambhir for the tri-series in Sri Lanka and batter at no. 4 in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy as Yuvraj Singh was recovering from an injury.
When Kohli played in the tri-nation ODI tournament in Bangladesh in 2010, Kohli played so well that he received praise from the then captain MS Dhoni. In the 2011 World Cup, Kohli became the first Indian batsman to score a century on his World Cup debut.
The first time Kohli showed a decline in his performance was when he made his Test debut against West Indies at Kingston where he only made 76 runs in five innings. His performance shot up again in 2015 when he became the first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match. During South Africa’s tour of India, he became the fastest batsman in the world to make 1,000 runs in T20I cricket, achieving the feat in his 27th innings.
Kohli made another achievement in the ODI tour of Australia as the fastest batsman in the world to cross the 7000-run mark in ODIs, and the fastest to score 25 centuries.
Captaincy
For the tri-series in Zimbabwe in 2010, Raina was named captain while Kohli was made vice-captain. During this, he emerged as the fastest Indian batsman to reach 1,000 ODI runs. Two years later, Kohli was appointed as vice-captain for the 2012 Asia Cup due to his excellent performance in Australia.
He was made captain of the 2013 West Indies tri-series winning team after Dhoni injured himself during the match. He also captained a five-match ODI tour of Zimbabwe, which India won by 5-0.
For the 2014 ICC World T20 Competition, Kohli was made vice-captain and amassed 319 runs in the tournament, earning him the Man of the Tournament award.
In the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, Kohli led India to a 5-0 victory. It was the second whitewash under his captaincy and the fourth in India’s ODI history. Kohli also made history as the fourth Indian to score a hundred on his Test captaincy debut when he led India in the first Test of the Australian tour and scored 115 runs in the first innings.
Kohli became the full-time Test captain ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney when Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket after the third match between India and Australia.
He soon made a record as the first batter in Test cricket history to score three hundred in his first three innings as Test captain by scoring 147 in the first innings at Sydney. Kohli continued to shine as a captain when he led India to the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, though they lost to Pakistan.
In August 2018, he ranked no. 1 in the ICC Test rankings and became the seventh Indian batter to achieve this milestone. In October 2018, he became the first Indian, first captain, and tenth overall to hit three successive centuries in ODIs.
Kohli’s captaincy was not always great as he failed to lead India to the 2019 Cricket World Cup finals after they lost to New Zealand in the semi-finals. They recovered the next year and achieved their first whitewash under Kohli’s captaincy when India toured New Zealand.
Unfortunately, India lost the 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final to New Zealand, Kohli’s third defeat as captain in knockouts and finals of ICC tournaments. Kohli’s captaincy and the team’s luck continued to have it rough when India failed to make it through the semi-finals in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.
Recent Achievements
Virat Kohli and India made an explosive comeback at the end of 2022 in the recent weeks. At the end of the One Day International (ODI) series against Sri Lanka, India became the first team to win a men’s ODI by over 300 runs. In the first ODI against Sri Lanka, Virat Kohli scored 113 off just 87 balls. This hit was his 45th ODI ton and 73rd hundred in international cricket.