Virat Kohli was born in Delhi on 5 November 1988. By October 2026 he has retired from T20Is and Tests, and still plays ODIs and the IPL. This is the career in order, with the numbers that matter.
Under-19 captain to India regular
Kohli captained India to the 2008 Under-19 World Cup. He then became part of the senior side that won the 2011 World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy. In 2013 he was also given the captaincy for the first time, during a tri-series in the West Indies, and scored his first century as captain.
The first years
Kohli was called up to the ODI squad for the tour of Sri Lanka in August 2008, aged 19. Injuries to senior players meant he opened the batting, and he made his first half-century in the fourth match. His place was not safe, though. The turning point was the 2009 Emerging Players Tournament in Australia, where he was the top run-scorer and made a century in the final. He scored his maiden ODI century in December 2009 against Sri Lanka. In 2010 he became the then fastest Indian to 1,000 ODI runs.
The peak years
From 2016 to 2018 he was at his best. He was Player of the Tournament at the 2016 World T20. As captain he led India in 68 Tests (40 wins) and stepped down in January 2022, which we covered in a separate post.
Detail on those years: Kohli became the first batter to score double centuries in four consecutive Test series. In 2018 he became the No. 1 ranked Test batter and led India to their first Test series win in Australia. He was also the fastest to 8,000, 10,000 and 11,000 ODI runs. His ICC awards from that period include ODI Player of the Year in 2012, 2017, 2018 and 2023, and Cricketer of the Year in 2017 and 2018. In 2018 he was the first player to win the Cricketer of the Year, ODI Player of the Year and Test Player of the Year awards in the same year.
The long dry spell and the comeback
At the 2022 Asia Cup he scored his first T20I century. It was his first hundred in any format in more than 1,000 days. At the 2022 T20 World Cup he was the top run-scorer, including an unbeaten 82 against Pakistan.
The 2023 World Cup, at home, was the high point. He scored a record 765 runs in a single edition, won Player of the Tournament, and made his 50th ODI hundred, passing Sachin Tendulkar's record.
Retirements and what came after
- June 2024: India won the T20 World Cup. Kohli was Player of the Match in the final and then retired from T20Is.
- 12 May 2025: retired from Test cricket, at 36.
- 2025: won the Champions Trophy with India, and the IPL with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, a title the franchise had not won in earlier finals in 2009, 2011 and 2016.
- 2026: scored his 54th ODI hundred against New Zealand at Indore, in 91 balls, chasing 337. It was his 85th in international cricket.
The career numbers
Wikipedia's career table lists these figures: 123 Tests and 9,230 runs at 46.85 with 30 hundreds and a top score of 254 not out. In ODIs, 315 matches and 15,080 runs at 59.13. In T20Is, 125 matches and 4,188 runs at 48.69 with one hundred. In ODIs he averages 65.5 when batting second and 51.7 when batting first, and the article notes that 28 of his 51 ODI hundreds, as it counted them at that point, came in run-chases. In the 2025 Champions Trophy he scored a century and became the fastest to 14,000 ODI runs. These totals change every time he plays, so treat them as a snapshot and check ESPNcricinfo for the live figures.
Honours
Arjuna Award (2013), Padma Shri (2017), Khel Ratna (2018).
All facts are from Virat Kohli (Wikipedia) and the ICC report on his captaincy. Check ESPNcricinfo for live career stats.
No comments:
Post a Comment