Background

Virat Kohli is an Indian cricketer born and raised in Delhi. In 1998, Kohli joined the West Delhi Cricket Academy. He started playing for the Delhi Under-15 team in 2002. In 2003-04, he captained the team in the Polly Umrigar Trophy. As a member of the Delhi Under-17 team in 2003-04, he participated in the Vijay Merchant Trophy. As a List A debutant, he faced Services in 2006. During the same year, he was selected to represent India at the Under-19 level. In the same year, he played his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu. At the 2008 ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup in Malaysia, Virat captained the Indian U-19 team to victory.

First Appearance

In 2008, Virat Kohli made his senior international debut against Sri Lanka in Dambulla when he was 19 years old. In the same year, Kohli led the India U-19 team to glory at the World Cup, making him a household name. The fact that he has a strong mindset and a sheer determination to win is one of the things that led him to be selected to represent the senior Indian Cricket team.

Ascend to Glory

At the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy, he replaced Yuvraj Singh, who was injured. The first century he scored against Sri Lanka came in 2009. In 2010, he played in all the Asia Cup matches. Even though he had poor form, Kohli was retained for his batting skills. As a result of the series against Australia in October 2010, Kohli's form took a positive rise.

His strong performance against the New Zealand cricket team in the series that followed made him a strong contender for selection to the 2011 World Cup squad. Following the series against South Africa in 2011, Kohli was selected for the 2011 World Cup. It was he who played every match in India's World Cup winning campaign and scored a century in the tournament, as well as playing a crucial role in the final match.

Low Point

Although Virat Kohli has the finest career and record in cricket, he has also had some rough patches as everyone does in life. The 2014 tour of England was the first time he had trouble timing the ball, and he scored fewer than two hundred in more than four innings.

Secondly, after COVID-19 times, for approximately 2.5 years, he did not even score one century. This is an extremely significant thing for someone with such remarkable talent. In response to his performance, legends of the game suggested that he retire from the T20 format. However, in T20 World Cup 2022, he demonstrated his class and became one of the tournament's top scorers.

Captaincy

ODI and T20

His first ODI as captain was in the first ODI of the triangular series in the West Indies, in which Sri Lanka played as the third team.

During the tri-series, he was only a stand-in captain, with his full-time captaincy assignment being the Zimbabwe tour in 2013. Kohli led India to a 5-0 victory over Zimbabwe. Captain of the 2014 Asia Cup and vice-captain of the 2014 ICC T20 World Cup, Kohli led the team to victory in both tournaments.

Test

After MS Dhoni announced his retirement at the conclusion of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG in 2014, Kohli succeeded him as India's Test captain.

In 2015, Kohli won his first Test against Sri Lanka. In 2019, Kohli became the most successful Indian test captain after winning his 28th test match. Kohli's first ICC tournament as captain was the 2017 Champions Trophy.

Leaving Captaincy

In January 2022, Kohli stepped down as captain of Indian cricket in all formats following the 2-1 defeat by South Africa in Tests. During his time as India's captain, Kohli played 68 Tests, 95 One-Day Internationals, and 50 Twenty-Twenty Internationals, winning 135 of them. In the red ball era, he has been the most successful skipper in his country.

Virat's Record

• First Indian to score a century on World Cup debut (2011)
• Third Indian to make 2 ODI hundreds by the age of 22 (after Sachin Tendulkar & Suresh Raina)
• Fastest Indian to complete 1000, 3000, 4000, and 5000 runs in ODI cricket
• Fastest century by an Indian (of 52 balls against Australia at Jaipur, India in 2013)
• Fastest to score 25 ODI tons
• Fastest to reach 7,500 ODI runs
• The third player to score 3 double hundreds in a calendar year after Don Bradman and Ricky Ponting
• Shares the record of 4 double hundreds with the likes of Don Bradman, Graeme Smith, Michael Clarke
• First Indian skipper to register 9 Test wins in a calendar year
• First Indian skipper to register 5 successive Test series wins
• First Indian to aggregate over 1000 Test runs in a calendar year after Rahul Dravid, who made 1145 runs in 2011
• The highest score of 235 in Tests is the highest score by an Indian captain in Tests
• First Indian Test skipper to score a double century in an overseas Test
• The fastest to 10,000 ODI runs and reached the mark in 205 innings
• The first Indian to score 3 consecutive centuries in ODI cricket
• The fastest player to 19,000 runs in international cricket