Under Virat Kohli leadership, India won the Under-19 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur in early 2008. For the visit to Sri Lanka in August, the gifted batter was quickly inserted into the senior Indian team. On August 18, 2008, in Dambulla, Sri Lanka, for the first of a five-match series, Kohli, then 19 years old, was given the opportunity to open in place of Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar.
It’s noteworthy that Kohli had just participated in eight List A games when he was selected for the Indian team for the Sri Lanka tour. He batted first for Delhi alongside Gautam Gambhir in his debut game, scoring 12 off 22 before being LBWed by Nuwan Kulasekara. The hosts completed the run chase with eight wickets remaining while bowling out the “Men in Blue” for 146.
In the fourth ODI, Kohli reached his first half-century on the international stage. He finally concluded the series with 159 runs at an average of 31.80 and a strike rate of 66.53. The right-handed batter had talent, and the Indian club management gave him their full support.
With a powerful batting lineup that included players like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, and MS Dhoni, among others, he did not take long to pay back the confidence placed in him. After signing a Grade D contract with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in December 2008, Kohli is now one of the most well-known athletes in the entire world, let alone India.
Stunning statistics for Virat Kohli in international cricket
ODI World Cup (2011) and ICC Champions Trophy (2013) winners already include the now-34-year-old Kohli. Kohli has 8676 runs at a 49.30 average in 111 Test matches. The veteran has played in 275 ODIs, scoring 12898 runs at an average of 57.32 runs per game. Additionally, Kohli has participated in 115 T20Is, amassing 4008 runs at an average of 52.74. Additionally, Kohli is getting close to Sachin’s record of 100 international hundreds. Kohli has scored 76 international tons to date: 29 in Tests, 46 in ODIs, and just one in T20 Internationals.
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