India's talismanic batter Virat Kohli will be playing in his fifth T20 World Cup and will hope to finally lift the trophy that has eluded him for almost a decade. The former India skipper has been a key fixture in the team at all major tournaments since 2011 when India won the ODI World Cup, but his rise to the top was not at all easy for the team.
Virat Kohli Early life
Kohli was born on November 5, 1988, in New Delhi to a Punjabi family. His father Prem Kohli was a lawyer, and he has two siblings — elder brother Vikas Kohli and an elder sister Bhawna. Having lifted the bat at the ripe age of three, and played regularly for Vishwa Bharati Public School before he joined the West Delhi Cricket Academy. His coach was Rajkumar Sharma after he moved to Savier Convent in Paschim Vihar.
In 2006, Kohli faced a major trial after his father, who was bedridden for almost a month because of a brain stroke.
Virat Kohli's India Under-19 win
In July 2006, Kohli was selected in the India Under-19 squad on its tour of England. He averaged 105 in the three-match ODI series against England U-19s and 49 in the three-match Test series.
In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the U-19 team to victory at the U-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in six matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batter to score a hundred in the tournament. He helped India to a three-wicket semifinal win over New Zealand U-19s by taking two wickets and scoring 43 runs in the run-chase and was awarded the man of the match.
In June 2008, Kohli and his U-19 teammates, Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava were awarded the Border-Gavaskar scholarship. The scholarship allowed the three players to train for six weeks at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He was also picked in the India Emerging Players squad for the four-team Emerging Players Tournament and scored 206 runs in six matches at an average of 41.20.
Virat Kohli Debut in International and ODI World Cup
Kohli made his ODI debut in August 2008 during the tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. His T20I debut took place in 2010 against Zimbabwe and his Test debut in 2011 against West Indies.
His rise in ODIs meant that Kohli jumped to the number two spot on the ICC Rankings for Men's ODI batters, and was named in India's 15-man squad for the World Cup. Kohli played in every match of India's successful World Cup campaign. He scored an unbeaten 100, his fifth ODI century, in the first match against Bangladesh and became the first Indian batter to score a century on his World Cup debut.
After a low list of scores, he was crucial in the final against Sri Lanka at Mumbai. He scored 35, sharing an 83-run partnership with Gambhir for the third wicket after India had lost both openers within the seventh over chasing 275. This partnership is regarded as one of the turning points in the match as India went on to win the match by six wickets and lift the World Cup for the first time since 1983.
Virat Kohli Test Captaincy
For the first Test of the Australian tour in December 2014, regular skipper MS Dhoni was not part of the Indian team at Adelaide due to an injury, and Kohli took the reins as Test captain. He scored 115 in India's first innings, becoming the fourth Indian to score a hundred on his Test captaincy debut.
Kohli put on 185 runs for the third wicket with Murali Vijay before Vijay's dismissal, which triggered a batting collapse. From 242/2, India was bowled out for 315 with Kohli's 141 off 175 balls being the top score.
After Dhoni returned as skipper in the second and third Tests, he announced his retirement from Test cricket at the conclusion of this match, and Kohli was appointed as the full-time Test captain ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney. In this match, he became the first batter in Test cricket history to score three centuries in his first three innings as Test captain.
He kept performing as India rose up the ranks, and in 2016, series wins over West Indies and New Zealand guided India to the top of the ICC Test Rankings.
Limited overs hero
Kohli was the highest run-getter at the 2016 T20 World Cup. He scored an unbeaten 55 in a successful run-chase against Pakistan, but the icing on the cake was his unbeaten 82 from 51 balls in India's must-win group match against Australia that helped the side win by six wickets and register a spot in the semi-final.
In the semi-final, Kohli top-scored with an unbeaten 89 from 47 deliveries, but West Indies overhauled India's total of 192 and ended India's campaign. His total of 273 runs in five matches at an average of 136.50 earned him his second consecutive Man of the Tournament award at the World Twenty20. He was also named captain of the 'Team of the Tournament'.
Fast-forward to 2018 and as Kohli's cult status rose, he became the 12th batsman and fastest player to score 10,000 ODI runs. Kohli surpassed the milestone in 205 innings, 54 innings less than the next quickest, Sachin Tendulkar.
Virat Kohli Captained in four ICC tournaments
During his time as skipper, Kohli has captained India in five tournaments — the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, the 2019 Cricket World Cup, the 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final and the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.
Bad run of form and giving up captaincy
After a bad run of form that saw him not score runs like he used to. He had not scored a century since 2019 and gave up Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captaincy ahead of the second phase of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. He was soon, reportedly, removed from the ODI captaincy, before announcing that the T20 World Cup would be his last limited-overs assignment as skipper.
After a disastrous tournament, Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma and then following the Test series against South Africa in December-January, he relinquished his position completely.
Virat Kohli Indian Premier League Career
Having played for only one IPL team since 2008, Kohli is a legend of the league in the RCB colours. After starring in almost every season barring the first one, Kohli broke the record for most runs in an IPL season (of 733 runs) in IPL 2016, scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08. He won the Orange Cap and the Most-valuable Player Award. In the same tournament, Kohl hit four centuries, the most by a player.
Return to form and maiden T20I ton
Many people called to drop Kohli after a dismal IPL campaign continued into international cricket. He took a month-long break which drew a lot of criticism but in the Asia Cup, Kohli came to form scoring 276 runs including a century against Afghanistan in the Super 4s. It was his first T20I century, more than a decade after making his T20I debut, and although many were unhappy with India's performance, Kohli's form was well appreciated.
Virat Kohli in 2022 T20 World Cup
With another World Cup around the corner, it will be interesting to see whether Kohli continues his good form from the Asia Cup, or if he flops. Either way, India's fortunes will be riding on the veteran batter's abilities, something he has well-established in the past.