Xtra Time Web Desk: On this day exactly thirteen years ago Indian captain Virat Kohli made his debut in International cricket. He opened the batting for India against Sri Lanka in an ODI. Kohli faced 22 balls and batted for 33 minutes at the crease before he was dismissed by Sri Lankan bowler Nuwan Kulasekara in the eight over.
Since then Kohli has registered 43 ODI tons and 27 test hundreds. The India skipper has played 254 ODIs so far, in which he has scored 12,169 runs at an average of 59.07 with his highest score being 183 against Pakistan. The right-handed batsman is in second place, only behind legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar in the list for most hundreds in ODI cricket.
Here are the 13 interesting facts about Virat Kohli as he celebrates 13 years in International cricket:
Kohli made his ODI debut for India in 2008 against Sri Lanka. He scored just 12 runs before being dismissed by Nuwan Kulasekara.
Kohli has so far registered 43 tons in ODI and 27 in Test cricket.
He is the most capped Indian captain as he has so far led the country in 63 matches, three more than MS Dhoni
He is also the most successful Indian test captain with 37 wins from 67 tests so far. Second in list is MS Dhoni with 27 test wins from 60 tests as captain
Virat was part of the 2011 World Cup winning team led by MS Dhoni.
He is the only Indian cricketer to score a hundred on World Cup debut.
Kohli was the youngest cricketer to be named the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year in 20121. He was only 23 years old.
He is the fastest Indian cricketer to reach 10,000 ODI runs.
Virat captained the India Under-19 team to the U-19 World Cup in 2008.
Virat Kohli took a wicket off his first delivery in T20Is as he got rid of England’s Kevin Pietersen
Kohli set a great example as he played a Ranji Trophy match against Karnataka despite his father’s death the same day in 2016
Virat Kohli became the fastest Indian to score 1000 runs in T20 Internationals.
He also became the fastest player to score 10,000 runs and broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record.