Thirty-one-year-old Virat Kohil is the current captain of India’s national team. He is a top-order batsman and currently plays in the Indian Premier League for Royal Challengers Bangalore. He is renowned for being one of the best international batsmen around.
Background of Virat Kohil
The captain of the national team in India began his career in the Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002. Kohil was the player with the leading run-getter record for his team, boasting an impressive 172 runs with an average of 34.40. On the back of this, he was chosen to captain his team for the Polly Umrigar Trophy in the 2003-04 season. During this season he scored 390 runs in 5 innings with an average of 78 which included two centuries and two fifties.
Towards the end of 2004 saw Kohil selected to play in the Delhi Under-17 side for the 2003-04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. His side won the Vijay Merchant Trophy in 2004-05 and Kohil finished as the player who had the highest run-score. He achieved 757 runs from 7 matches with an average of 84.11 and two centuries.
He made his debut for the national side in 2008 and made his test debut in June 2011 against the West Indies. Kohil made his ODI debut in 2008 against Sri Lanka. He was chosen as the vice-captain for the series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in 2010. It was during this series that he became the fastest batsman in India to reach a thousand runs playing ODI cricket.
During India’s tour of South Africa in 2011, Virat Kohil was the team’s leading run-getter in the five-match ODI series averaging 48.25 with 193 runs including two fifties. The batsman took the number two spot in the ICC Rankings for ODI batsmen and was selected to play in India’s squad for the World Cup.
Debut as Test captain and beyond
Kohli became the Test captain for the first time in 2014 for the Australian tour. The batsman scored 115 in the first innings for India and became only the fourth Indian to score a hundred during the debut as a Test captain.
The first match of the World Cup saw India face Pakistan in Adelaide. The captain hit 107 in 126 balls and was awarded the man of the match award. This was the batsman’s 20th in ODI cricket and his first in a World Cup Match.
Kohil was named as the captain of India’s squad for the Cricket World Cup in 2019. In June of the same year, whilst playing against Pakistan, Kohil became the fastest batsman when it came to innings, to score 11, 000 runs in ODI cricket. India played the West Indies eleven days later and he became the fastest cricketer to score 20, 000 runs in international cricket.
October 2019 saw Kohil captain the squad for India for the 50th time in Test cricket in their second Test against South Africa. In his first innings, he scored an unbeaten 254 runs.