“The King – Virat Kohli” 18 years as a living legend, completed his 18 years in international cricket career on 18th August 2026. He has debut in international cricket by ODI cricket on 18th August 2008 against Sri Lanka in Dambulla where he opened the innings and scored only 12 runs of 22 balls.

Early Life

He has started his cricketing journey from West Delhi Cricket Academy at the age of 9 years where he met his coach Rajkumar Sharma and started to groom his cricketing career. But he failed to secure a place in U-14 Delhi team due to some extraneous factors. Later he got selected in U-15 Delhi team. But his seriousness increased into cricket after sudden demise of his father Mr. Prem Nath Kohli on 18th December 2006 due to cerebral attack.

India U-19 World Cup

Virat Kohli suddenly came on focus after winning the U-19 World Cup for India beating South Africa by 12 runs using Duckworth Lewis System (DLS) in Malaysia on 2nd March 2008. Later, by the inaugural 2008 IPL amateur Draft, he was picked up by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on 11th March 2008 just at a price Rs. 12 Lakh.

Initial Cricket Journey

Virat Kohli was struggling to find his permanent place in International Cricket team. He has batted at many different positions from opening to 7th order in ODI cricket. He also got debuted very late almost after 3 years of ODI cricket in June 2011 into the longest format of cricket due to his inability of standing on crease. However, he got opportunity to lead the team as a captain in Test cricket after sudden retirement of M.S. Dhoni in mid of the Border Gavaskar Trophy in 2014.

Tag of “A Failed Captain”

Virat Kohli has brilliantly led the Indian Cricket in International venues but due to not winning of any World cup trophies in any format including his Test Championships. Where he has become the highest Match winning captain for India with 40 wins in 68 matches and overall 4th maximum Test winning captain in the world cricket. He has most time criticized for not winning of Champions Trophy final in 2017 against Pakistan where he chooses bowling after winning the toss in such a big game. He has also became the first T20I captain to lose a match against Pakistan in T20I World Cup.

Memorable Innings of Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli is at top list to score a 100 in ODI cricket in just 52, which was against Australia in 2013 at Mohali. Due to his contribution, India has chased down a 360 runs target in just 43.3 overs with 1 wicket loss of Shikhar Dhawan.
“The Hobart Masterclass” of 2012, where Virat Kohli has scored 133* off 86 balls to chase down a 320 runs target in just 36.4 overs and qualified for final. This innings is reminded for his immense stroke play against Lasith Malinga’s yorker.
His quarter final knock of 82 runs of 51 balls against Australia in T20I World Cup 2016 reminded for his chasing master class where M.S. Dhoni has given him strike in last to finish the match.
His thrilling league match innings of 82 runs off 53 balls against Pakistan in T20I World Cup 2022, where scoring just 28 runs in last 8 balls makes every Indian fan heartbeat fast. This innings will be reminded in every generation of cricket that how he can manage to win a match at that point.

Controversy against Sourav Ganguly

Virat Kohli had announced before his 2021 T20I World Cup that he will leave captaincy of T20I after World Cup. But due to loss in World Cup in league stages and also against Pakistan. He got forcefully removed from ODI captaincy also. At that time, Sourav Ganguly was BCCI President. After that he has individually Test Captaincy also before the England Test Tour.