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“To become a good player, you need talent. To become a great player, you need an attitude like Virat Kohli,” – Sunil Gavaskar, former Indian cricket legend.
There are some whose consistent success is admired by everyone. And then, there are others, who are so successful and consistent that if they fail even once, it takes everyone by surprise. Virat Kohli belongs to the second breed.
Seeing Sachin Tendulkar hang his boots in 2013 was painful. But the swift rise of King Kohli has alleviated the pain in no time. Both may be poles apart in their attitudes (one is an epitome of gentleness and the other… ) or playing style, perhaps. But one thing (and the one that matters the most) that is similar between them is consistency. Rarely, the cricketing world has seen such a consistent player like Virat Kohli.
And what a match-winner is he for India! be it the 133* inning against Sri Lanka, famously dubbed as the Hobart Storm, or the 182 in the classic chase against Pakistan in the 2012 Asia Cup, Kohli never failed to mesmerize us.
Life seems beautiful when Virat punches the ball through the covers. God knows how he manages to pierce the gap every time. Here’s one, just a treat to the eyes.
Already excited to know about Mr. Consistent? Well then, here’s all you need to know about Virat Kohli…
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Virat Kohli |
| Age | 32 years [As of April 2021] |
| Sport Category | cricket |
| Date of Birth | November 5, 1988 |
| Hometown | Delhi, India |
| Height | 175 cm |
| Coach | Rajkumar Sharma |
| Achievement | 2012- ICC ODI Player of the year Award, 2013 - Arjuna Award, 2016,17,18- Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World, 2018- Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, 2018- Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy |
| Networth | $93 million (688 crores) |
| Spouse | Anushka Sharma |
| Parent | Prem and Saroj Kohli |
| Children | Vamika Kohli |
| ODI Debut | 18 August 2008 |
| Test Debut | 20 June 2011 vs. West Indies |
| ICC Rankings | 1st in ODI, 5th in T20, 5th in Test [As of April 2021] |
| Batting Style | Right-handed |
| Bowling Style | Right-arm medium |
| Teams Played for | India, Delhi, India A (India Blues), India Emerging Players, India Red, India Red India Under-19s (Young Cricketers), India Under-19s, Indian Board President's XI, North Zone, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, Rest of India, Royal Challengers Bangalore loRoyal Challengers Bangalore |
| IPL Debut | 2008: RCB |
| Captain | RCB, Team India |
| Alma Mater | Vishal Bharti Public School |
Virat Kohli childhood
Virat played a tournament under Rajkumar held at the Delhi Development Authority’s Sports Complex ground in Hari Nagar. The tournament consisted of six games. Three league fixtures, a quarter-final, semi-final, and final.
Rajkumar Sharma remembers that Virat got out only once in the tournament. He was indeed the leading run-scorer in the tournament and was flamboyant with his shots.
But more than the tournament, the most memorable moment in young Virat’s career happened during the presentation ceremony when fast-bowler Ashish Nehra presented him with the Player of the Tournament. Nehra was a superstar back then, having just come back from an excellent 2003 World Cup campaign.
That was just the start of his career. And how far has Virat come from that incident? Well, the world saw the answer on 1st November 2017 when Ashish Nehra announced his retirement from international cricket in a T20I against New Zealand- under the captaincy of Virat Kohli. Phew! That will take some time to sink!
Despite coming in and out of the senior team, Virat was making his mark. This was rewarded by his selection in the 4-team Emerging Players Tournament held between July and August 2009 in Australia.
In the seven games that he played, the 19-year-old scored a massive 398 runs at an average of 66.33, thus ending up as the leading run-scorer in the tournament. Virat also proved that he was arguably the best batting prodigy in the world at that moment.
An injury to Gautam Gambhir provided another lucky recall for Virat, again for a series against Sri Lanka. In the following tournaments including the 2009 Champions Trophy and series against Australia.
It was in the 4th ODI of the Sri Lankan series that Virat hit his first century. His 224-run stand with Gautam Gambhir prompted the latter to hand his ‘Man of the Match’ award to Virat Kohli.
As he grew in performance over the next few years, Virat started to regularly feature for India. 2010 was a path-breaking year for him. King Kohli finished the year with 995 runs at an average of 47.38, making him the highest run-scoring batsman.
And this was a phenomenal achievement for a 22-year-old who was still finding his place amongst established biggies. The year 2010 was really crucial in cementing Virat’s place in India’s starting XI.
Virat singled out the tournament as the “turning point” of his career. “That boosted my confidence tremendously. I just became so much more mentally stronger. I have now learned to bat in pressure conditions.”
From that time, I have just been concentrating on my game and not thinking about other things,” he said at a press conference in 2010.
The title ‘Chase Master Virat’ which has been conferred to Virat Kohli is more than enough to describe his ODI career. There have been very few in the history of cricket with such god-level of consistency.
In a career of 11 years so far, Virat has surpassed legends like Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakarra, and Jacques Kallis in the list of most centuries by a batsman.
He is threateningly close to the record of 49 ODI centuries. Virat currently has 43 ODI centuries and 27 test centuries.
Just to refresh the memories, Virat made his debut in ODIs against Sri Lanka on August 18, 2008. It has been 13 glorious years since that day and still, Virat remains the undisputed king.
While there has been a prolonged debate about “Smith vs Kohli: Who’s the best test batsman of this generation”, there is one thing that can never go unnoticed. Be it any format, Kohli is always the center of comparison. It’s either Kane Williamson vs Kohli or Joe Root vs Kohli if not Smith.
Such has been the impact of this champion player “Virat Kohli”. Kohli stands fourth on the list of players with most double centuries (7) in test cricket, only behind Bradman (12), Sangakarra(11), and Brian Lara(9).
Kohli achieved the highest ever test rating for any Indian batsman – 937 against England on 22nd August 2018. The second Indian on the list is Sunil Gavaskar with a rating of 917.
Kohli masquerades a strong test record with 26 centuries and 22 half-centuries 82 matches.
The first T20 match between Zimbabwe and India in India tour of Zimbabwe, saw Kohli make his T20 international debut. To be specific about the date, it was the 12th of June, 2010.
And Kohli had a brilliant debut! He scored a crucial 26 not out from 21 balls apart from stitching an unbeaten 64 run partnership with Yusuf Pathan in the chase to see India home.
If you look at that day and compare it with Kohli of today, things have changed exponentially. He is the captain of the Indian national team across all formats. He averages 50 in the T20I format itself!
On 6th December 2019, Kohli again gave evidence of his supremacy in the chase game against West Indies by scoring an unbeaten 94, his highest score in T20Is, and helping India chase down a massive total of 207 runs. This was the Men in Blue’s highest run-chase in T20I.
Virat Kohli represents the breed of players who have been a part of only one franchise since the inception of IPL. Mind you! It’s a rare breed. Inducted into the Royal Challengers Bangalore side in the year 2008 itself, Kohli has been the face of the franchise.
Kohli was given the responsibility of leading the side in 2013 and has been leading since. There cannot be a tournament in which Kohli doesn’t leave his mark.
In the IPL season of 2016, Kohli sent down the records shattering. He scored a whopping 973 runs in that season with 4 hundred and 7 fifties! That’s a pretty serious record.
David warner stands second in the list of most runs in an IPL season with 848 runs. Kohli, at the moment, is the leading run-scorer in the Indian Premier League with 5,878 runs (192 matches, till March 2021)
Virat was born in a Punjabi family based in Delhi. His father, Prem Kohli, was a criminal lawyer and his mother Saroj, is a homemaker. Virat has two older siblings, a brother – Vikash and a sister–Bhavna.
When he was hardly three years old, Virat started showing signs of a cricketing career. His father was the one to notice and encourage this talent. He took Kohli to West Delhi Cricket Academy when he was just nine. Rajkumar Sharma was his first coach there and knew right from the beginning that this lad was meant for greatness.
Along with cricket, Virat Kohli was an excellent student in academics as well. His father gave him unconditional support to chase his dreams. Unfortunately, his father couldn’t witness his legendary achievements.
When Kohli was just 19, his father passed away due to a stroke. Even then, Kohli showed up in the field the very next day and played a crucial knock for his team in the ongoing Ranji tournament.
“I still remember the night my father passed away as it was the hardest time in my life. But the call to play the morning after my father’s death came instinctively to me. I called my (Delhi) coach in the morning. I said I wanted to play because for me not completing a cricket game is a sin. That was a moment that changed me as a person. The importance this sport holds in my life is very, very high,” Kohli told NDTV.
Virat Kohli is married to the famous Bollywood diva and one of the most popular actresses in the current Hindi Film industry, Anushka Sharma. Virat and Anushka started dating in 2013 and soon earned the celebrity couple nickname “Virushka”. The two never publicly talked about it and kept it to themselves until the couple married on 11 December 2017. It was a private ceremony in Florence, Italy with just close family members and friends. Their amazing wedding pictures and cheerful love bond raised the standards of couple goals throughout India.
Virat Kohli has credited his wife, Anushka Sharma for the emotional strength and maturity in his behavior that he has learned from her. Virat and Anushka are some of the most recognizable and followed couples of the country. In fact, big brands like Manyawar, Google Duo, etc have even built marketing campaigns with 2 stars with many popular TV advertisements.
Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma welcomed their first child, Vamika Kohli on the 11th of January 2021.
Virat Kohli’s image as a stylish young icon has landed him several endorsements. Bunty Sachdev of Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment manages Kohli’s deals. Kohli’s brand endorsements crossed the ₹100 crore mark in 2013 itself. Some of these prominent brands are MRF, Puma, Audi, Manyavar, etc.
Kohli was placed on number 7 in Forbes Most Valuable Brand list for athletes in 2017. His value was around $93 million (688 crores-2021). He also featured in the Top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world list since 2018. With USD 26 million, Virat jumped to the 66th spot from 100 in 2020. Kohli’s earnings from endorsement stand at USD 24 million and USD 2 million from salary/winnings.
Virat Kohli is a co-owner of the club FC Goa in the Indian Super League. He has also invested in ventures like the International Premier Tennis League franchise UAE Royals and Bengaluru Yodhas franchise in Pro Wrestling. In 2014, Kohli co-launched a fashion clothing brand WROGN with Anjana Reddy’s Universal Sportsbiz. He has also invested in and started numerous fitness ventures.
| M | Inn | NO | Runs | HS | Avg | BF | SR | 100 | 200 | 50 | 4s | 6s | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test | 91 | 153 | 10 | 7490 | 254 | 52.38 | 13112 | 57.12 | 27 | 7 | 25 | 839 | 22 |
| ODI | 253 | 244 | 40 | 12143 | 183 | 59.52 | 13030 | 93.19 | 43 | 0 | 61 | 1139 | 125 |
| T20I | 89 | 84 | 24 | 3159 | 94 | 52.65 | 2272 | 139.04 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 285 | 90 |
| IPL | 192 | 184 | 30 | 5878 | 113 | 38.17 | 4496 | 130.74 | 5 | 0 | 39 | 503 | 20 |
| M | Inn | B | Runs | Wkts | BBI | BBM | Econ | Avg | SR | 5W | 10W | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test | 91 | 11 | 175 | 84 | 0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 2.88 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
| ODI | 253 | 48 | 641 | 665 | 4 | 1/15 | 1/15 | 6.27 | 166.25 | 160.25 | 0 | 0 |
| T20I | 89 | 12 | 146 | 198 | 4 | 1/13 | 1/13 | 8.14 | 49.5 | 36.5 | 0 | 0 |
| IPL | 192 | 26 | 251 | 368 | 4 | 2/25 | 2/25 | 8.8 | 92.0 | 62.75 | 0 | 0 |
| Batting and Fielding | Mat | No | Runs | HS | Ave | BF | SR | 100 | 50 | 4s | 6s | CT | ST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Career | 199 | 31 | 6076 | 113 | 37.97 | 4,659 | 130.41 | 5 | 40 | 524 | 205 | 80 | 0 |
| 2021 | 7 | 1 | 198 | 72* | 33.00 | 163 | 121.47 | 0 | 1 | 21 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| 2020 | 15 | 4 | 466 | 90* | 42.36 | 384 | 121.35 | 0 | 3 | 23 | 11 | 3 | 0 |
| 2019 | 14 | 0 | 464 | 100 | 33.14 | 328 | 141.46 | 1 | 2 | 46 | 13 | 5 | 0 |
| 2018 | 14 | 3 | 530 | 92* | 48.18 | 381 | 139.10 | 0 | 4 | 52 | 18 | 8 | 0 |
| 2017 | 10 | 0 | 308 | 64 | 30.80 | 252 | 122.22 | 0 | 4 | 23 | 11 | 6 | 0 |
| 2016 | 16 | 4 | 973 | 113 | 81.08 | 640 | 152.03 | 4 | 7 | 83 | 38 | 6 | 0 |
| 2015 | 16 | 5 | 505 | 82* | 45.90 | 386 | 130.82 | 0 | 3 | 35 | 23 | 7 | 0 |
| 2014 | 14 | 1 | 359 | 73 | 27.61 | 294 | 122.10 | 0 | 2 | 23 | 16 | 7 | 0 |
| 2013 | 16 | 2 | 634 | 99 | 45.28 | 457 | 138.73 | 0 | 6 | 64 | 22 | 7 | 0 |
| 2012 | 16 | 2 | 364 | 73* | 28.00 | 326 | 111.65 | 0 | 2 | 33 | 9 | 7 | 0 |
| 2011 | 16 | 4 | 557 | 71 | 46.41 | 460 | 121.08 | 0 | 4 | 55 | 16 | 7 | 0 |
| 2010 | 16 | 2 | 307 | 58 | 27.90 | 212 | 144.81 | 0 | 1 | 26 | 12 | 3 | 0 |
| 2009 | 16 | 2 | 246 | 50 | 22.36 | 219 | 112.32 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
| 2008 | 13 | 1 | 165 | 38 | 15.00 | 157 | 105.09 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
Kohli is known for his cheeky playing. It may be because of this that the former Delhi coach Ajit Chaudhary bestowed the name ‘Cheeku‘ upon him after he joined the Delhi Ranji team.
In 2012, Virat Kohli was included in the Top 10 Best Dressed International Men. The prestigious list also included big names like former US President Barack Obama.
The Forbes Magazine, in late 2020, named Kohli as the richest cricketer alive. Moreover, he has also named the second-richest celebrity of India.
Virat Kohli is an avid cook when he is not frying bowlers on the pitch. Moreover, the batsman’s favorite recipe is Mutton biryani matched up with a delicious kheer. He also likes to have Japanese cuisine.
While the entire country is Virat Kohli’s, the captain is a die-hard fan of man’s most loyal friend- Dog. Kohli owns a beagle named Bruno that rules Instagram with some beautiful clicks.
He also supports an animal shelter called Charlie’s Animal Rescue Centre (CARE) in Bengaluru. Kohli is believed to own as many as 15 dogs there.
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