King Kohli turns 32: A look at his astonishing feats
The captain of the Indian cricket team, Virat Kohli, turned 32 on Thursday. Often known as the Run Machine, Kohli is arguably the greatest batsman in modern-day cricket across formats. Considering his attributes, he is often touted as the successor of Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar. His exquisite cover drives and crafty flicks are a treat to the eyes. Here are Kohli's splendid feats.
Over a decade after bursting on to international circuit, Kohli seems to be ruling the roost. He has already amassed 7,240 runs from 86 Tests at an incredible average of 53.62. He also owns 11,867 and 2,794 runs in ODI and T20I cricket respectively. At present, Kohli is the only player to average over 50 in all three formats (ODI: 59.33, T20I: 50.80).
Before 2016, Kohli was deprived of a single double hundred in Test cricket. However, he ended 2017 with as many as six double tons. Last year, Kohli added another one after scoring an unbeaten 254 against South Africa, which is now his highest Test score. Notably, he is only behind Don Bradman (12), Kumar Sangakkara (11) and Brian Lara (9) on this list.
Kohli is currently the sixth-highest run-scorer in ODIs. Moreover, he has amassed the second-most ODI runs after Tendulkar (18,426) among Indians. He is the only cricketer after the latter to slam 40 tons (ODIs). Having already completed 43 centuries, Kohli is six short of emulating the record of Tendulkar. Interestingly, Kohli has 13 more hundreds than the third-placed Ricky Ponting (30).
Kohli is the India's highest run-scorer in T20 cricket. He has tallied 9,360 runs from 295 T20s at a phenomenal average of 41.41. In fact, he also leads the runs tally in the Indian Premier League (5,872 runs, five tons). After three torrid seasons, his franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore have finally entered the playoffs this time. Hence, Kohli could complete 6,000 IPL runs.
In 2014/15, Kohli took the mantle in Test cricket from former skipper MS Dhoni, after the latter retired. Ever since, he has operated as an astute leader, leading Team India to the top of ICC Test Rankings. In the whites, Kohli is already India's most successful captain with 33 wins. He has also shepherd India in 62 ODI and 22 T20I victories.
In his 12-year-old career, the Indian captain has broken a plethora of records. However, there are still some mountains he would surely want to scale, an IPL title for starters. Although touching Tendulkar's record of 100 international centuries seems far-fetched, we would still back Kohli to attain it. After all, Kohli took mere 11 innings to jump from 9,000 to 10,000 ODI runs in 2018.
