'Achieved greatness at such a young age' - Ravi Shastri, Shikhar Dhawan and many others wish Virat Kohli on his 32nd birthday
Virat Kohli turned 32 on Thursday, and the entire cricket fraternity took to Twitter to send their birthday wishes to the India and Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper. Many of them recalled various special moments from his 12-year long international career.
And what a career it has been. Since he made his debut in the India Blue against Sri Lanka in Dambulla in 2008, Virat Kohli's stature has grown leaps and bounds. Not only is he in the top 10 of the ICC batting rankings across all 3 formats, King Kohli has had an indelible impact on contemporary cricket.
Virat Kohli is 8th on the list of players with most runs in international cricket, having scored 21,901 runs in 416 matches – 7,240 runs in 86 Tests, 11,867 runs in 248 ODIs and 2794 runs in 81 T20Is. To put that into perspective, the top 12 names – barring Kohli – on the list have all retired.
What's more is that the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy winner (2017 and 2018) has recorded the third-most international hundreds (70) in cricket history – only Sachin Tendulkar (100) and Ricky Ponting (71) are ahead of the 32-year-old.
His 27 Test hundreds rank 4th among Indians, and he is behind only Sachin Tendulkar (49 hundreds) in ODI cricket with 43 tons under his belt. While Virat Kohli is yet to register a T20I hundred, he is the highest run-getter in the shortest format, boasting of a remarkable average of 50.8.
Virat Kohli has hit 5 centuries in the IPL and is the highest run-scorer in the history of the cash-rich league. In 191 matches for RCB, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardee has scored 5872 runs at an average of 38.38, including 39 fifties.
Talking about his captaincy exploits, Virat Kohli enjoys a 71.83 win percentage, which is more than those of MS Dhoni, Mohammad Azharuddin and Sourav Ganguly. The 2008 U-19 World Cup-winning skipper has helped India reach the semi-finals of the 2016 T20 World Cup, 2019 World Cup, and the finals of the Champions Trophy in 2017.
Virat Kohli is already India’s most successful captain in Tests, having won 33 of the 55 matches he has taken charge. Moreover, he became the first Indian captain to win a Test series on Australian soil when India beat the hosts 2-1 in 2018/19.
Currently, Virat Kohli and all of India are focused on the IPL. RCB have made the playoffs for the first time since 2016, and Kohli would look to win his maiden IPL and add another feather to his cap.
Twitter wishes Virat Kohli a very happy 32nd birthday