Virat Kohli Early Life, Career, Family, Age, Affairs, Facts, Personal life, International career, Playing style, IPL, Charity, Wiki, Records, Awards, Biography
Also Known As: Virat Kohli
Born:-
Born:-
5 November 1988
Delhi, India
Height:- 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Batting:- Right-handed
Bowling:- Right-arm medium
Role:- Top-order batsman, Captain
Relations:-
- India (2008–present)
Test debut:- (cap 269)20 June 2011 v West Indies
Early life
Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi family. His father, Prem Kohli, worked as a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a housewife. He has an older brother, Vikash, and an older sister, Bhavna. According to his family, when he was three-years old, Kohli would pick up a cricket bat, start swinging it and ask his father to bowl at him.
Kohli was raised in Uttam Nagar and started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created, and Kohli, a nine-year-old, was part of its first intake. Kohli's father took him to the academy after their neighbours suggested that "Virat shouldn't waste his time in gully cricket and instead join a professional club". Kohli trained at the academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time. Sharma recounts Kohli's early days at his academy, "He oozed talent. It was so difficult to keep him quiet. He was a natural in whatever he did and I was most impressed with his attitude. He was ready to bat at any spot, and I had to literally push him home after the training sessions. He just wouldn’t leave." In ninth grade, he shifted to Saviour Convent in Paschim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Apart from sports, Kohli was good at academics as well, and his teachers remember him as "a bright and alert child". Kohli's family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 when they moved to Gurgaon.
Kohli's father died on 18 December 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a month. Regarding his early life, Kohli has said in an interview, "I've seen a lot in life. Losing my father at a young age, the family business not doing too well, staying in a rented place. There were tough times for the family... It's all embedded in my memory."According to Kohli, his father supported his cricket training during his childhood, "My father was my biggest support. He was the one who drove me to practice every day. I miss his presence sometimes."
Outside cricket
Personal life
Kohli started dating Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in 2013; the couple soon earned the celebrity couple nickname"Virushka". Their relationship attracted substantial media attention, with persistent rumours and speculations in the media, as neither of the two publicly talked about it. The couple married on 11 December 2017 in a private ceremony in Florence, Italy.
Kohli has admitted that he is superstitious. He used to wear black wristbands as a cricket superstition; earlier, he used to wear the same pair of gloves with which he had "been scoring". Apart from a religious black thread, he has also been wearing a kara on his right arm since 2012.
International career
Early years
In August 2008, Kohli was included in the Indian ODI squad for tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, Kohli had played only eight List A matches, and his selection was called a "surprise call-up". During the Sri Lankan tour, as both first-choice openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwagwere injured, Kohli batted as a makeshift opener throughout the series. He made his international debut, at the age of 19, in the first ODI of the tour and was dismissed for 12. He made his first ODI half century, a score of 54, in the fourth match which helped India win the series. He had scores of 37, 25 and 31 in the other three matches. India won the series 3–2 which was India's first ODI series win against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
After the Champions Trophy was postponed to 2009, Kohli was picked as a replacement for the injured Shikhar Dhawan in the India A squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A in September 2008. He batted only once in the two-match series, and scored 49 in that innings. Later that month in September 2008, he played for Delhi in the Nissar Trophy against SNGPL (winners of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy from Pakistan) and top-scored for Delhi in both innings, with 52 and 197. The match was drawn but SNGPL won the trophy on first-innings lead. In October 2008, Kohli played for Indian Board President's XI in a four-day tour match against Australia. He made 105 and 16* in that match against a bowling line-up consisting of Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Jason Krejza.
Kohli was included in the squad for the home ODI series against England in November 2008 but was not given a chance to play, due to the inclusion of Tendulkar and Sehwag in the team. In December 2008, Kohli was given a Grade D contract in the annual BCCI contracts list which entitled him to receive Rs 15 lakh. He was then dropped from the squad for the five-match ODI series in Sri Lanka against Sri Lanka in January 2009.
Kohli was selected in the four-team Emerging Players Tournament in July–August 2009 held in Australia. He opened the innings for India Emerging Players in that tournament and finished as the leading run-getter with 398 runs from seven matches at an average of 66.33. He scored 104 off 102 balls in the final against South Africa Emerging Players at Brisbane to help his team win the match by 17 runs and clinch the title. At the conclusion of the tournament, Kris Srikkanth, the chairman of the national selection committee, was impressed with Kohli and remarked "I must say, opener Virat Kohli was outstanding. Some of the shots he played spoke about his ability." Kohli has called this tournament as the "turning point" of his career.
Kohli returned to the national team replacing the injured Gautam Gambhir in Indian squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka. He batted at number 4 for India in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy because of an injury to Yuvraj Singh. In the inconsequential group match against the West Indies, Kohli scored an unbeaten 79 in India's successful chase of 130 and won his first man of the match award. Kohli played as a reserve batsman in the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, appearing in two matches as injury replacement. He found a place in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka in December 2009 and scored 27 and 54 in the first two ODIs before making way for Yuvraj who regained fitness for the third ODI. However, Yuvraj's finger injury recurred leading to him being ruled out indefinitely. Kohli returned to the team in the fourth ODI at Kolkata and scored his first ODI century–107 off 111 balls–sharing a 224-run partnership for the third wicket with Gambhir, who made his personal best score of 150. India won by seven wickets to seal the series 3–1. The man of the match was awarded to Gambhir who gave the award to Kohli.
Tendulkar was rested for the tri-nation ODI tournament in Bangladesh in January 2010, which enabled Kohli to play in each of India's five matches. Against Bangladesh, he scored 91 to help secure a win after India collapsed to 51/3 early in their run-chase of 297. In the next match against Sri Lanka, Kohli ended unbeaten on 71 to help India win the match with a bonus point having chased down their target of 214 within 33 overs. The next day, he scored his second ODI century, against Bangladesh, bringing up the mark with the winning runs. He became only the third Indian batsman to score two ODI centuries before their 22nd birthday, after Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. Kohli was much praised for his performances during the series in particular by the Indian captain Dhoni. Although Kohli made only two runs in the final against Sri Lanka in a four-wicket Indian defeat, he finished as the leading run-getter of the series with 275 runs from five innings at an average of 91.66. In the three-match ODI series at home against South Africa in February, Kohli batted in two games and had scores of 31 and 57.
Indian Premier League
In March 2008, Kohli was bought on a youth contract by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000. He had an indifferent 2008 season, with a total of 165 runs in 12 innings at an average of 15.00 and a strike rate of 105.09. He fared slightly better in the second season in which he made a total of 246 runs at 22.36, striking at over 112, while his team made it as far as the final. In the 2010 season, Kohli was the third highest run-getter for his team with 307 runs, averaging 27.90 and improving his strike rate to 144.81.
Ahead of the 2011 season, Kohli was the only player retained by the Royal Challengers franchise. Kohli was made vice-captain of the team that year and also captained the team in a few matches when the regular skipper Daniel Vettori was injured. The Royal Challengers coach Ray Jennings opined that the 22-year-old would become the future captain of not only the franchise but also the Indian team. Kohli was the second-highest run-getter of the season, only behind teammate Chris Gayle, and his team finished as runners-up of the IPL. Kohli accumulated a total of 557 runs at an average of 46.41 and a strike rate of over 121 including four fifties. In the 2012 IPL, he was moderately successful, averaging 28 for his 364 runs.
After Vettori's retirement, Kohli was appointed as the team's captain for the 2013 season. The Royal Challengers finished fifth on the league table that year, but Kohli found success with the bat. Averaging 45.28, he hit a total of 634 runs at a strike rate of over 138 including six fifties and a top-score of 99 and finished as the season's third-highest run-scorer. Bangalore finished seventh in the next season in which Kohli made 359 runs at 27.61. He found success with the bat in the 2015 IPL in which he led his team to the playoffs. He finished fifth on the season's leading run-getters list with 505 runs at an average of 45.90 and a strike rate of more than 130.
At the 2016 IPL, the Royal Challengers finished runners-up and Kohli broke the record for most runs in an IPL season (of 733 runs) by scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08, winning the Orange Cap. He scored four centuries in the tournament, having never scored one in the Twenty20 format before the start of the season, and also became the first player to reach the 4000-run milestone in the IPL. At the launch event of his biography, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story' in New Delhi, in October 2016, Kohli announced that RCB would be the IPL franchise that he would permanently play for.
Kohli missed the start of the 2017 season due to a shoulder injury. Morever, RCB finished the tournament at the bottom of the table, with Kohli scoring the most runs for his team, with 308 from 10 matches.
In the 2018 season, Kohli was retained by RCB for a price of ₹17 crore, the highest for any player that year.
Playing style
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip, and is said to have quick footwork. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder.
Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages more than 67 in matches batting second as opposed to around 47 batting first. 21 of his 35 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second. Regarding his impressive record batting second, Kohli has said "I love the whole situation that comes with chasing. I like the challenge of testing myself, figuring out how to rotate strike, when to hit a boundary."
Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket".
Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression."
Commercial investments
According to Kohli, football is his second favourite sport. In 2014, Kohli became a co-owner of Indian Super League club FC Goa. He stated that he invested in the club with the "keenness of football" and because he "wanted football to grow in India". He added, "It's a business venture for me for the future. Cricket's not going to last forever and I'm keeping all my options open after retirement."
In September 2015, Kohli became a co-owner of the International Premier Tennis League franchise UAE Royals, and, in December that year, became a co-owner of the JSW-owned Bengaluru Yodhas franchise in Pro Wrestling League.
In November 2014, Kohli and Anjana Reddy's Universal Sportsbiz (USPL) launched a youth fashion brand WROGN. The brand started to produce men's casual wear clothing in 2015 and has tied up with Myntra and Shopper's Stop. In late 2014, Kohli was announced as a shareholder and brand ambassador of the social networking venture 'Sport Convo' based in London.
In 2015, Kohli invested ₹90 crore (US$13 million) to start a chain of gyms and fitness centres across the country. Launched under the name Chisel, the chain of gyms is jointly owned by Kohli, Chisel India and CSE (Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment), the agency which manages Kohli's commercial interests. In 2016, Kohli started Stepathlon Kids, a children fitness venture, in partnership with Stepathlon Lifestyle.
Charity
In March 2013, Kohli started a charity foundation called Virat Kohli Foundation (VKF). The organisation aims at helping underprivileged kids and conducts events to raise funds for the charity. According to Kohli, the foundation works with select NGOs to "create awareness, seek support and raise funds for the various causes they endorse and the philanthropic work they engage in." In May 2014, eBay and Save the Children India conducted a charity auction with VKF, with its proceeds benefiting the education and healthcare of underprivileged children.
Kohli has captained the All Heart Football Club, owned by VKF, in charity football matches against All Stars Football Club, owned by Abhishek Bachchan's Playing for Humanity. The matches, known as "Celebrity Clasico", feature cricketers playing for All Heart and Bollywood actors in the All Stars team, and are organized to generate funds for the two charity foundations.
International centuries
As of August 2018, Kohli has scored 23 Test and 35 ODI centuries which makes him the second most successful centurion in ODI cricket after Sachin Tendulkar.
Records and achievements
- Fastest century
- Fastest century by an Indian cricketer in ODIs (52 balls).
- Milestones
- Fastest Indian to reach 1,000 runs in ODIs.
- Fastest Indian and third fastest in the world to reach 5,000 runs in ODIs.
- Fastest Indian and second fastest in the world to reach 6,000 runs in ODIs.
- Fastest Indian and second fastest in the world to reach 7,000 runs in ODIs.
- Fastest player to reach 8,000 runs in ODIs.
- Fastest player to reach 9,000 runs in ODIs.
- Fastest Indian and second fastest in the world to reach 10 centuries in ODIs.
- Fastest Indian and second fastest in the world to reach 15 centuries in ODIs.
- Fastest Indian and second fastest in the world to reach 20 centuries in ODIs.
- Fastest Indian and second fastest in the world to reach 25 centuries in ODIs.
- Fastest in the world to reach 30 centuries in ODIs.
- Fastest in the world to reach 35 centuries in ODIs.
- Fastest in the world to reach 1,000 runs in T20Is.
- Fastest in the world to reach 15,000 international runs.
- Joint fastest batsman with Hashim Amla to reach 50 centuries across all forms of international cricket (348 innings).
- Only batsman in history to average more than 50 in Tests, ODIs and T20Is simultaneously; also possesses the highest combined average across all formats among Test players who have played in at least two formats.
- Highest historic rating points in the ICC rankings by an Indian batsman in Tests (937 points), ODIs (911 points) and T20Is (897 points) – achieved on 23 August 2018, 16 February 2018 and 7 September 2014 respectively.
- Fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score 17,000 runs in international cricket (363).
- Crossed 900 ratings points in the ICC rankings in both Tests and ODIs – one amongst five batsmen to have done so and only the second batsman after AB de Villiers to do it simultaneously.
- First batsman to score 500 runs in a bilateral ODI series.
- Fastest in the world to score 2,000 runs in terms of innings in T20Is (56).
- Most runs in a calendar year/series
- Most ODI runs in 2010 by an Indian cricketer.
- Most ODI runs in 2011 by any cricketer.
- Most ODI runs in 2012 by an Indian cricketer.
- Most ODI runs in 2013 by an Indian cricketer.
- Most ODI runs in 2014 by an Indian cricketer.
- Most ODI runs in 2016 by an Indian cricketer.
- Most Test runs in 2012 by an Indian cricketer.
- Most Test runs in 2015 by an Indian cricketer.
- Most Test runs in 2016 by an Indian cricketer.
- Most combined international runs scored in a year by an Indian cricketer – 2818 international runs in 2017.[
- Most runs scored by an Indian cricketer in a three-match Test series – 610 runs against Sri Lanka in 2017.
- Most ODI runs in 2017 by any cricketer.
- Most runs in a bilateral ODI series by any cricketer – 558 runs against South Africa in 2018.
- Captaincy records
- Most consecutive wins in Test series (9) as a captain from 2015–2017 (equal with Ricky Ponting from 2005–2008).
- First batsman to score three centuries in his first three innings as Test captain. He is also the second Test captain to score centuries in his first two Test innings after Greg Chappell.
- First Indian Test captain to score a double century overseas.
- First Indian Test captain to score two or more double centuries.
- Fastest captain to score 1000 ODI runs.
- First ever batsman to score double centuries in four consecutive Test series.
- Fastest captain to score 2000 ODI runs.
- First Indian captain to score a hundred and a duck in the same Test.
- First captain to score 10 international hundreds in a calendar year.
- Most Test centuries as a captain of India (12).
- Most double centuries by a captain in Tests (6).
- Most centuries (11) by a captain in a calendar year (2017).
- Most runs as captain of India in Tests.
- Most ODI centuries as a captain of India (13).
- First Test captain to score centuries in each game of a three-match Test series.
- Fastest captain to score 3000 ODI runs.
Awards
- Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year): 2017
- ICC ODI Player of the Year: 2012, 2017
- ICC ODI Team of the Year: 2012, 2014, 2016 (captain), 2017 (captain)
- ICC Test Team of the Year: 2017 (captain)
- Polly Umrigar Award for International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
- Padma Shri: 2017
- Arjuna Award: 2013
- Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2016, 2017
- CEAT International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14
- Barmy Army - International Player of Year: 2017, 2018
Virat Kohli Early Life, Career, Family, Age, Affairs, Facts, Personal life, International career, Playing style, IPL, Charity, Wiki, Records, Awards, Biography
Reviewed by bd
on
August 24, 2018
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Reviewed by bd
on
August 24, 2018
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