Lasith Malinga’s foot breaking Yorkers, Mitchell Johnson’s 155 kmph bouncers, Sunil Narine’s mystery spin-bowling, Saeed Ajmal’s doosras or Mohammmad Amir’s perfect line and length outside the off stump -- Virat Kohli has survived and thrashed them all to become the best in the world.
As Indian Test team captain Virat Kohli recently completed his eight years in international cricket and has come a very long way since he made his debut against Sri Lanka in 2008. Such is the dedication of this player that he who was playing a Ranji Trophy game for Delhi and lost his father in between the 4-day match, went in to bat the same day and scored a classy 91.
Who would have thought that this aggressive U-19 captain, who led India to World Cup back in 2008, would become the backbone of Indian batting? We saw a glimpse of it in the U-19 World Cup when he scored a brisk 106 against West Indies in tough conditions to take India to victory in the match. Captain Kohli led from the front while India went on to win the World Cup then but still people had no idea that in few years time India would be witnessing one of the most consistent players it has produced.
After a successful World Cup campaign in 2008, he had a dismal IPL campaign where he was picked by Royal Challengers Bangalore based on his U-19 performances. After his poor performance in the IPL, Virat went back to the nets and worked on his basics, trying to get into the national team. After performing well in few domestic matches, he was selected for the ODI series against Sri Lanka. He got a chance in that series where he replaced his idol Sachin Tendulkar who got injured before the series. He scored a fifty in the fourth ODI, announcing his arrival and showing that he had the potential to survive at the international level.
His breakthrough series was in 2009 against Sri Lanka again where he scored his first one day international century and stringed a beautiful partnership along with Gautam Gambhir to chase down a mammoth total and take India to victory. Gautam Gambhir, who was awarded the man of the match, gave his trophy to Virat for his knock of 109. This was just the beginning of his fairytale One-day career. He has been the architect of various Indian wins and says that he likes pressure and hence likes chasing and winning games for India.
Since then he been a vital cog in India’s limited over team and has been the backbone of Indian batting line-up. In 2010 he was India’s leading run scorer with 995 runs in the year. After his exceptional performances, Virat Kohli was selected for the World Cup.
The most important event in cricket ICC Cricket World Cup and young 21-year Virat was a part of it alongside his idol Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar, who was in the last phase of his career, wanted to leave on a high by winning the trophy he had never won before. Kohli scored a brilliant hundred in his first match against Bangladesh to take India to a big total. He did not do much with the bat throughout the tournament after that but stringed a 83-run partnership along with Gautam Gambhir in the final against Sri Lanka when India were in deep trouble after losing early wickets of Sehwag and Sachin. Many consider this as a turning point in that chase which stabilised the Indian innings and then Dhoni and Gambhir finsished it in style. The dream came true for this young Indian player who lifted his idol Sachin Tendulkar on his shoulder all over Wankhede during the victory lap.
Post World Cup, Kohli was handed the Test Cap on India’s tour to West Indies. He did not perform well in the series, scoring only 79 runs in five innings raising question marks on his Test match abilities.
Kohli came into his own later in 2011 where he was in the peak of his form scoring runs against all oppositions in the home series. In 2012, when India visited Australia in the triangular series, he was in red hot form. He had scored his maiden Test hundred against the Aussies under tough batting conditions. So in a match against Sri Lanka India had to chase 321 in 40 overs to stay alive in the competition. India got off to a good start but then two wickets tumbled down suddenly and in came Virat Kohli who started thrashing bowlers all around the park. He sent Malinga on Leather hunt, taking 24 runs in one of his overs. He scored 133 runs off 86 balls and was named the man-of-the-match.
When asked about his innings post match, he said that he was playing two matches of 20 overs in his mind which helped him achieve his huge total of 321. Many consider this knock as one of the best ODI innings they have ever seen.
Virat Kohli has been consistently performing since then for India. His innings of 183 against Pakistan in the Asia Cup and his knock of 100 runs against Australia off 52 balls, which was the fastest hundred by an Indian, has been some of the highlights. One of his rough patch was when he had poor ODI and Test series where he was troubled by the moving ball outside the off stump.
He has been the face of Indian cricket and participated in various ICC events. He was a part of the team which won the ICC Champions Trophy and played a very crucial knock in the final giving some runs for the bowlers to defend. Virat Kohli is the fastest to score1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 and 7000 runs for India in ODI cricket. Kohli, who currently holds 2nd position in ICC ODI Batsman’s Ranking, has scored 7,212 runs in 171 ODI’s at an average of 51.51. He has 25 ODI centuries and 36 fifties to his name. 22 of those centuries have come while chasing and India has lost only one game in which he has scored a century while chasing.
He is a versatile player and has been exceptional in all three formats of the game. He was the player of the tournament in ICC T20 World Cup 2014 and ICC T20 World Cup 2016. Especially in the 2016 World Cup where he was more of the matured T20 batsman and knew how to pace his innings quickly, he played his best T20 games till now. Be it his innings against Pakistan in a high pressure and high intensity game or his brilliantly paced innings in an important game against Australia, Virat Kohli gave a top notch performance each time. His innings of 89 against West Indies remains one of his best as it was like a complete innings where he thrashed fours and sixes and ran quick singles and doubles. Whatever he was touching was turning into gold on that day as he picked a wicket off his first ball and gave some exceptional fielding performance as well. But luck was not on India’s side as West Indies chased down a total of 191, knocking India out of the World Cup, leaving Virat Kohli and whole of India in shock.
Virat Kohli was appointed the Test Captain as MS Dhoni decided to retire suddenly in the middle of the Australian tour. He had big boots to fill as MS Dhoni has been one of the greatest Captain of India.
Added responsibility of captaincy seemed to have enhanced his batting performance as well as he scored hundreds in his first two matches as Test Captain against the mighty Aussies. The Captain led from the front in this series as he handled Mitchell Johnson’s bouncers and sledging pretty well. He was aggressive both with his bat and with his mouth. Kohli has been successful captain, defeating the likes the of Sri Lanka and West Indies.
With his passion and desire to perform for the country, he has become one of the best at a very young age. He is only 27 years old and with age on his side he can break all the batting records in years to come if he keeps performing the way he has for India. And with an added responsibility of a leadership role he looks to carry Indian cricket forward with his aggressive approach. Kohli’s sensational fielding skills and his ability to assess the situation and capture the moment makes him more charming as a cricketer.
