Virat Kohli, is an professional Indian cricketer and the current captain of the India cricket team. Considered to be the best batsmen in the current era, he is also an intermittent right-arm medium speed bowler. He is known for his reliable and amazing batting style and has won various matches single handedly.

Early Life of Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988, in Delhi, India. His father, Prem Kohli, was a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a housewife. He has two siblings: an elder brother named Vikash, and an elder sister named, Bhavna.

Kohli got inspired by cricket at an early age of three years. Aged only three, he would get a cricket bat and request that his dad bowl to him. He received his initial schooling from Vishal Bharti Public School.

In 1988 Kohli joined the West Delhi Cricket Academy and trained under Raj Kumar Sharma and furthermore played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave simultaneously. In 10th grade, he moved to Savior Convent in Paschim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Apart from sports, Kohli was also good at academics too, and his teachers recall him as “a bright and attentive kid”. Kohli’s family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 and then they moved to Gurgaon.

Kohli’s dad passed away on 18 December 2006 because of a stroke subsequent to being bed ridden for months.

Virat Kohli cricket career

In 2002, he played for Delhi Under-15 group and became leading run scorer in the 2002–03 Polly Umrigar Trophy trophy with 172 runs at an average of 34.40 . He was appointed captain of the team for the 2003–04 season of Polly Umrigar Trophy.

Kohli was chosen in the Delhi Under-17 squad for the 2003–04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. He scored 470 runs with two hundreds at an average of 117.50 and a top-score of 251* in four matches. Delhi Under-17s again won the Vijay Merchant Trophy in the next year (2004-05) with Kohli being the lead scorer with a total of 757 runs with two centuries from 7 matches.

Kohli got selected in the India Under-19 crew on its tour to England in 2006. He scored an average 105 in the three-match ODI series which the India Under-19 team won. He also performed a good knock against Pakistan’s U-19 cricket team thereafter.

In 2006 Kohli made his debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu , when he was 18 years old, and scored just 10 runs in his first innings. He came into the limelight in December when he chose to play against Karnataka on the day after his father passed and went on to score 90 runs and after the match was over immediately went to his father’s funeral.He scored a total of 257 runs with an average of 36.71 from 6 matches in that season.

International Debut

In April 2007, he made his T-20 debut and finished as the top scorer for the team in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs and an average of 35.80.

In 2008, he took the Indian team to triumph at the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Following this, he was purchased by the Indian Premier League establishment, Royal Challengers Bangalore, for $30,000 on a youth agreement.

In June 2008, Kohli and his Under-19 partners Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava were granted the Border-Gavaskar grant that permits players to train for about a month and a half at Cricket Australia’s Center of Excellence in Brisbane.

Keeping his form consistent all throughout 2009 he got his first man of the match award after scoring an unbeaten 79 against the West Indies in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy.

Raina was named captain and Kohli vice captain for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in May–June 2010, as some best option players avoided the visit. Kohli made 168 runs including two fifties, at an average of 42.00 yet India endured three losses in four matches and was slammed out of the series. During the series, Kohli became the fastest Indian batsman to score 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. He made his T20 International debut against Zimbabwe at Harare and scored a 26*.

In spite of the poor form of Kohli , he was held in the ODI crew for a three-match series against Australia in October, and in the match at Visakhapatnam, he scored his third ODI century–118 off 121 balls–which assisted India in the chase 290 runs after both team India openers got out early and Kohli was awarded man of the match.

World cup and captaincy

Retaining his good form he earned a spot in the 2011 World Cup squad. Kohli played in each match in the competition and scored an unbeaten 100 in the first match against Bangladesh. He became the first Indian batsman to score a century on World Cup debut. In the finals between India and Sri Lanka match, Kohli scored 35 runs in the finals against Sri Lanka. India won the match against Sri Lanka by six wickets and lifted the World Cup for the first time since 1983.

In 2014, he was appointed as the captain of the Indian test team. During the Australian visit that very year, he scored a total of 692 runs in four Tests. It was the most by any Indian batsman in a Test series in Australia.

In 2017, he became the limited-overs captain after Dhoni stepped down from the position.

Personal Life-

Virat Kohli was in a relationship with Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma and they later got married on December 11, 2017. The two got married in Tuscany, Italy. The duo welcomed their first child, Vamika on January 11 this year.

Achievements

2013 – Arjuna Award

2017 – Padma Shri

2018 – Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna

Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Decade for 2011–2020

Virat has won ICC ODI Player of the Year for three consecutive years 2012,2017,2018

He has been part of ICC ODI Team of the Year for 2012, 2014, 2016 (captain), 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain),2019 (captain)

ICC Test Team of the Year for 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)

He has won ICC Spirit of Cricket for 2019