Virat Kohli, Indian cricket’s modern golden boy, turns 28

Virat Kohli is India’s supreme run-machine. Ever since he made his international debut in 2008, Kohli has been formidable in all three formats of the game. Be it Tests, ODIs or T20Is, Kohli’s ability to be consistent has been spectacular. Over the last couple of years, his formidable batting has reached peaks that few batsmen have scaled.
With Virat Kohli taking over as the full-time Test captain from Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 2015, India’s fortunes have also changed dramatically. Under Kohli’s captaincy, they have won four consecutive series. In ODIs and T20Is, Kohli has assumed the mantle of a chase master, batting brilliantly when the team needs to chase down a big score.
On the occasion of his 28th birthday, here is a look at some of the magnificent numbers Virat Kohli has accumulated in his career so far.
161 – Number of innings it has taken Virat Kohli to reach 7000 runs in ODIs. He is the fastest in the world to get to the landmark, beating the previous mark of 166 set by South Africa’s AB de Villiers
973 – The number of runs accumulated by Virat Kohli in one edition of the Indian Premier League, which is the most in any T20 tournament in the world. If one has to look at numbers across all formats, Kohli falls one run short of Sir Donald Bradman, who smashed 974 runs in one five-Test Ashes series against England in 1930
27 – Number of innings taken by Kohli to score 1000 runs in Twenty20 Internationals, which is the fastest in the world. He beat the previous mark of 32 set by England’s Kevin Pietersen
26 – Number of hundreds scored by Kohli in ODIs in just 176 ODIs, putting him in fourth position among all batsmen. Sachin Tendulkar with 49, Ricky Ponting with 30 and Sanath Jayasuriya with 28 are the only batsmen ahead of him in this format
2 – Number of double centuries scored by Kohli in Tests. Both these double tons came during his captaincy tenure, making him the only Indian captain to achieve this feat.
90.10 – Kohli’s average while batting in successful chases in ODIs, making him a true chase master. He has scored 14 centuries while chasing, making this average jaw-dropping
62 – Virat Kohli’s average against Australia in Australia. In eight Tests Down Under, he has scored 992 runs with five centuries, including a century in each innings in Adelaide in 2014. He has the third-best average among all batsmen who have played in Australia, behind England’s Ken Barrington with 69.7 in 10 Tests and Herbert Sutcliffe, who averages 63.70 in 14 Tests*.
* – Minimun qualification of 900 runs in Australia.
On his 28th birthday, there were wishes pouring in for Virat Kohli. Here are some of the Tweets made by his former and present team-mates. Sachin Tendulkar led the way with his tribute, calling Kohli a naughty guy