Born on November 5, 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi family, Virat Kohli started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created and a nine-year-old Kohli was part of its first intake.
Kohli was trained at the academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time.
Virat Kohli made his Test debut in 2011. With the player stepping down as India’s Test captain, the reign of the country’s “most successful captain” in the longest format came to an end. Kohli took this to the social media where he wrote, “It’s been 7 years of hard work, toil, and relentless perseverance every day to take the team in the right direction. I’ve done the job with absolute honesty and left nothing out there. Everything has to come to a halt at some stage and for me as Test Captain of India, it’s now. There have been many ups and also some downs along the journey, but never has there been a lack of effort or lack of belief. I have always believed in giving my 120 percent in everything I do, and if I can’t do that, I know it’s not the right thing to do. I have absolute clarity in my heart and I cannot be dishonest to my team.”
He further added, “I want to thank the BCCI for giving me the opportunity to lead my country for such a long period of time and more importantly to all the teammates who bought into the vision. I was bad for the team from day one and never gave up in any situation. You guys have made this journey so memorable and beautiful. To Ravi Bhai and the support group who were the engine behind this vehicle that moved us upwards in Test Cricket consistently, you all have played a massive role in bringing this vision to life. Lastly, a big thank you to MS Dhoni who believed in me as a Captain and found me to be an able individual who could take Indian Cricket forward.”
Here we present to you a sneak peak into his Journey as a Test Captain
Kohli holds the record for most Test appearances as India Test captain (68) and he also holds the record for most Test wins by an Indian captain (40). Only Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting, and Steve Waugh have won more matches than Kohli as captain in Test cricket.
The leadership also brought out the best in Kohli and it saw the batter registering seven double-centuries in the longest format of the game. Kohli also holds the record for scoring most Test centuries (20) as India captain.
India: the number one team in ICC Rankings:
Under Kohli’s leadership India was crowned the number one Test team in the ICC Rankings for a continuous period of 42 months from October 2016 till early March 2020.
National Honours:
In 2017, Kohli bagged the Padma Shri which is India’s fourth highest civilian award.
In 2018, he bagged the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India’s highest sporting honour.
Sporting Honours:
In 2017-2018 Kohli was honoured with Barmy Army – International Player of Year and with ICC Spirit of Cricket in 2019.
The most consistent performer:
Since breaking into the national side, Virat Kohli has emerged as one of the most consistent batsmen across the globe. Be it with the red ball or the white ball, the current Indian skipper has proved his mettle in all formats of the game and his staggering record speaks for his worth.
In a career spanning over 248 ODIs, the 31-year-old has amassed 11867 runs including 43 tons and 58 half-centuries. He also has 7240 and 2794 runs in Tests and T20Is respectively.
