Virat Kohli

Virat is counted amongst the very best players, that Indian cricket or world cricket has ever seen. He plays for the Indian Cricket team, captaining the Test Team and is the vice-captain for the other formats. He was born on November 5, 1988 in Delhi, India. His is a prominent batsman who is right handed and sometimes bowls with the style of right-arm medium pace. He also plays in the international cricket tournament, Indian Premiere League, as the captain for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

He had started his career by playing for the various age levels in Delhi. He was then chosen to captain the U-19 Indian team in the world cup of 2008. Under his captainship, the team won the world cup. He then made his international debut at the age of 19 against Sri Lanka in 2008. After which he started playing in the middle order for the ODI team. He was also there in the 2011 world cup squad that Indian team won. His test debut was 2011 against West Indies. He started to play well in both formats and reached the number one position in ICC ODI batsmen rankings.

He played well in the Twenty20 format and won titles like Man of the tournament in ICC world T20 in 2014 and also in the year 2016. He still holds the position of the top T20 batsman in the world. After being named the vice-captain of the team, he has also taken charge as the captain in some games when the captain MS Dhoni was not present. Since, 2014 he has lead Test team when the skipper retired from test cricket. He has many records in his name like, fastest 5000 ODI runs, fastest ODI century, fastest 10 ODI centuries, fastest batsmen to score 1000 runs T20s and most fifties in T20 format.

He also holds the record of most runs in single tournament i.e. World T20 and IPL. His spent his early days in Uttam Nagar, Delhi. Prem Kohli, his late father, was a profession criminal lawyer while, Saroj Kohli, his mother, a homemaker. Virat has an older brother and sister named Vikash and Bhavna. His schooling began in Vishal Bharti School. He joined the cricket academy called West Delhi Cricket academy at the age of 9 and started playing for the club at various levels.

In the ninth grade, he joined the Savier convent to make his training easier. His father passed away on December 18, 2006 due to brain stroke. In his career, he has played for age levels like U-15, U-17 and others. He has played for several tournaments like Polly Umriger Trophy, Vijay Merchant trophy and others. In these tournaments he achieved feats like highest run scorer, fastest fifty and others. In 2006, he was selected for the U-19 squad against England and scored decent amount of runs in the series. India won them both.

Then the team played against Pakistan and he scored well for the team. His game for Delhi against Tamil Nadu was average but when he played against Karnataka he scored 90 runs. This match happened during his father’s death and Virat went to his father’s funeral after he got out. In this season he scored 257 which were in 6 matches. He has been a fantastic player of the T20 format in the U19 team; he played against teams like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and others by scoring highest runs for the team in the series.

His big break came in 2008 when he captained the Indian team and won the world cup in Malaysia. He scored 235 runs in 6 matches. He stood at the third position in the category of highest run getters and one of those batsmen to score a century in the tournament. His knock of 100 in 74 balls against West Indies was named the series of the tournament. He also scored well against South Africa and New Zealand. His fame grew after this; he was selected by the IPL team of Royal Challengers Bangalore, in 2008 he received the Border Gavaskar Scholarship, he was included in ICC champions trophy squad of 30 men also he was one among the Emerging players in India.

His international career also began in 2008. He played for the India against Sri Lanka and in the ICC Champions trophy. He played well against Sri Lanka and India won the series; he was to open in place of Sachin Tendulkar Born in Dadar in Mumbai, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar i >> Read More... or Virendar Shewag. In 2009, he played test against Australia in place of Shikar Dhawan who was injured. Then he played the Nissar Trophy against SNGPL. Then he was chosen for Indian Board Presidents IX against Australia where he scored a 105 runs against legends like Brett Lee Born on November 8, 1976, in Wollongong, New South >> Read More... , Stuart Clarke, Mitchell Johnson and others.

He got in the Indian squad in November 2009 but couldn’t play due to Sachin and Sehwag’s inclusion in the team. He was dropped in the next series against Sri Lanka. Then he played for the four teams emerging player’s tournament and scored 104 of 102 balls. He was well appreciated. He was then added in the India-Sri Lanka series to replace Gautam Gambhir Born to the textile business manager Deepak Gambhi >> Read More... . He then played the ICC Champions trophy in place of Yuvraj Singh Yuvraj Singh is an Indian cricketer, born to a sta >> Read More... and scored well. He earned his first man of the match after his knock against West Indies.

He then played for the team in several matches scoring decent amount of runs for the team in place of the players. Sachin Tendulkar was rested in the next ODI series against Bangladesh in which Kohli got a chance and played a beautiful game to bring back India into the game; he scored 91 runs for India and thus won the match. He played well against Sri Lanka in the coming match and became one of those players to score two ODI centuries before 22 years. He was also in the next series against South Africa and batted well.

After this he played some amazing games of his life like the tri series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe then against New Zealand. His score was something everyone looked up for. He played many matches after this; his form went through many ups and downs. He reached the spot of number one batsman. Then he was selected in the for the World Cup squad of 15 men. He played the world cup well and scored a century against Bangladesh to become one of those batsmen to score a century in world cup debut. After which his scores were average.

This world cup was won by the Indian team in 2011. He was in a good form after this. In October 2011, he was a leading run scorer against England in the series. After this, he was added in the main squad of the Indian team. He was appointed as the Vice-Captain in the Asia Cup of 2012 against Bangladesh. He played some amazing knocks in this series. He played umpteen numbers of matches after this. Some were average performances, while some were amazing knocks.

His IPL career has also been great. From 2008, he has been a big hitter for the RCB team. In 2010, he was the highest run scorer for the team. He was the vice-captain of RCB in 2011 and became one of the highest run scorers in the season with 557 runs. He was appointed the captain of RCB in 2013. He played some great games in the tournament; in 2015 the team reached the play offs. His games have had a strike rate of 130+. In 2016, he became the first cricketer to score 4000 runs in IPL history.

From December 2015, he has been in relationship with the popular Indian actress, Anushka Sharma Born in an army family to Col. AjayKumar and Ashim >> Read More... . It is seen that he is an aggressive batsman and mostly batted in the middle order for the team. He has said that he is a very superstitious person. Apart from that, he has been active in social media and has done many TV commercials. He has also been active in charity and has his own foundation. He has many awards and achievements in his names. He has hundreds of records in his name that are mentioned above.

In 2012, he had been awarded the ODI player of the year by ICC; he was the ICC international cricketer of the year in 2011-12 and 2014-15. He is the recipient of the esteemed Arjuna Award given by the Indian government for excellent achievement in sports. The magazine SportsPro named Virat the second-most remarkable athlete of 2014. He has co owned the Indian Super League team Goa FC and International Premiere Tennis League team UAE Royals.

The Kohli Family Tree (Infographic Family Tree)

Anushka Sharma Family Tree (Infographic Family Tree)