People usually do not talk about a player’s accomplishments until he/she is retired. But Virat Kohli has already gathered so much silverware in his career till now that we are sure he must have a separate home for all these accolades. It’s true that India has produced some of the greatest cricketers and Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev are just a few names out of them. But none of them have as much ambition as Virat Kohli. This modern-day cricket is regarded as one of the best cricketers of all time and Sachin Tendulkar’s replacement to the team India. Out of all the awards and achievements, considering Virat to Sachin would be the best.
The reason we believe that Kohli is in the league of his own is that he has become the most consistent all-format scorer. His ability to make chases look easy and his way of playing technical shots are just simply mesmerizing to watch. Virat Kohli is one of the players that can even make difficult things look easy. We guess that’s why bowlers are always delighted after managing to get his wicket.
His ambition to be the best batsman in the world transferred perfectly to his captaincy. Apart from winning an international trophy, team India has been able to achieve everything under Kohli’s captaincy. Even talking about his individual awards, Kohli has scored a test hundred in and against every country he played. He is also widely credited for changing the fitness culture in Indian cricket also introducing endurance tests as a criterion for selection. Enough talking about what he has done for the country let us have a look at some of his individual accomplishments starting with his stats.
Stats – Something Beautiful to Glance
| Format | Match | Inns | Runs | HS | Ave | SR | 100s | 50s | 4s | 6s |
| Tests | 98 | 166 | 7854 | 254* | 50.34 | 56.27 | 27 | 27 | 880 | 23 |
| ODI | 254 | 245 | 12169 | 183 | 59.07 | 93.17 | 43 | 62 | 1140 | 125 |
| T20I | 95 | 87 | 3227 | 94* | 52.04 | 137.9 | 0 | 29 | 290 | 91 |
| FC | 130 | 214 | 10103 | 254* | 51.28 | 56.57 | 34 | 35 | 1193 | 38 |
| List A | 288 | 278 | 13611 | 183 | 57.67 | 93.24 | 47 | 70 | 1304 | 149 |
| T20 | 324 | 307 | 10204 | 113 | 41.14 | 133.2 | 5 | 75 | 906 | 321 |
Accomplishments of Virat Kohli
- From the start of his career, Virat started playing his role for the team. In 2008, Kohli led the Indian team to victory at the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup. With time he cemented his spot in the Indian cricket team. Virat was also the first Indian batsman to score a century on World Cup debut. He went on scoring 282 runs in the 2011 World Cup at an average of 35.25. We must say this major contribution was the crucial part as India lifted the World Cup for the second time.
- Virat Kohli is one of the greats in limited over cricket. He has already scored more than 12,000 runs in his ODI career at an average of 59.07. Virat has also scored 43 centuries which is the second most ever after Sachin Tendulkar, who has scored 49. Kohli’s average is more than Kane Williamson, Smith and Joe Root who are sometimes considered as the best. Not only this, Kohli is also the quickest batsman to reach 8,000; 9,000; 10,000; and 11,000 runs in ODI cricket. Virat has als scored 5,388 runs in successful run chases at an average of 96.21. He also adorns the record of the most centuries in the successful run chases. Sachin is the distant second on the list with 14 centuries.
- After the amazing performances in tests in 2017 and 2018, Kolhi rose to 937 points in the ICC Cricket Test Ratings on August 22, 2018. This is the 11th highest rating ever achieved in the history of Test cricket and the highest for an Indian batsman. Kohli’s highest ODI rating is 911, which is the 6th highest overall and the highest for an Indian batsman. His highest T20I rating of 897 is the second highest overall after Aaron Finch of Australia.
- Kohli became the captain of the team India in 2014 and limited format captain in 2017. Although Virat has not won any ICC tournament as captain, Virat Kohli is still the most successful captain for India. When Virat took over, India were ranked at 7 in ICC test rankings. Kohli led India to No.1 test team in the world in October 2016. For more than three years India have retained the top spot in the ICC rankings. Kohli is the fifth most successful captain in Test history and the most successful Indian captain.
- Virat Kohli has been part of three major World Cups. In the 2019 World Cup in England, Kohli was the second highest run scorer for India with 443 runs in 9 innings at an average of 55.37. In 2015 World Cup in Australia, he was the third highest run scorer for India with 305 runs in 8 innings at an average of 50.83. Because of which he was the Man of the Tournament in both these World Cups. Virat is also the fourth highest run scorer in T20 World Cups in a list headed by Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka, who has scored 1016 runs.
Endnotes
Apart from all these accomplishments, Virat Kohli has also been awarded the highest sporting honor in India known as Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. Kohli is also the world’s most famous athlete by the sports network ESPN. It’s sure that Virat still has a lot to offer and we are sure he is going to bring better things to himself and to the team India.