Virat Kohli scored just 19 runs in the two innings of his debut Test, under Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captaincy, in Kingston, Jamaica on 20 June 2011. India won the match by 63 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series which they eventually won 1-0. Abhinav Mukund and Praveen Kumar too got Test debut for India in the same match[/caption]
“Playing for India is the absolute top priority for me.” From Kingston, Jamaica on 20 June 2011 to Southampton, England on 20 June 2021, Virat Kolhi has defined a decade of Indian Test cricket.
When Virat Kohli took to the crease on the third morning of the World Test Championship Final in Southampton, it was 10 years to the day since a 22-year-old Kohli made his five-day debut for India.
The decade between those two innings has seen the precocious batsman establish a reputation as one of the greatest of all time.
Twenty seven centuries
Kohli may not have added to his score on the day in Southampton, and managed just four against the West Indies in Kingston ten years previously, but neither knock is a reflection of a decade that has seen him score 7,534 runs in 92 Tests at an average of 52.31.
Nobody has scored more than Kohli’s 27 centuries in that time, with 14 of his tons coming away from home, recalled icc-cricket yesterday (21).
Centuries in all countries but Bangladesh
The 32-year-old averages over 50 in both Australia and South Africa, while his record in 43 Tests on home soil is remarkable – 3,730 runs at an average of 64.31.
Kohli has also scored hundreds both in and against every Test nation he has faced, with the exception of Bangladesh (where he has played just a single match).
His best calendar year to-date came in 2016, when he scored 1,215 runs in 12 matches at an average of 75.93, but Kohli has been consistently world-class, picking up a host of individual awards as a result.
Play of the year twice
He was voted the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test Player of the Year in 2018 and has been selected in the ICC Test Team of the Year in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
Kohli was also named as Captain of the ICC Men’s Test Team of the Decade, and in 2020 was awarded the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Decade.
And it is not just with the willow that Kohli has formed his legacy.
As India Skipper
The boy from New Delhi took the India Test captaincy in 2014 and - by taking to the field as Skipper for the 61st time in Southampton - has now overtaken Mahendra Singh Dhoni to have captained India more than any other player in Test history.
Only five players, none of whom are still playing, have captained any national side more in the Test game.
“Playing for India is the absolute top priority for me,” Kohli told Mark Nicholas earlier this year.
“It’s a chance for me to represent 1.4 billion people. It’s a chance for me to inspire people, with what we do on the field, what I can do on the field as an individual, and that’s my driving force.
You too can do it
“If you look back at how this team of ours has gone through a transition and come to where we are in world cricket, there’s a good reason behind that: that we are absolutely passionate to represent our country and represent in a way that teaches competitiveness to people watching.
“It teaches people that you can compete, you can beat anyone anywhere in the world, and when you’re getting on a plane to go and play in foreign conditions, you’re excited and not intimidated.
“As long as we can instil that competitiveness and that belief in generations to come, then we have left this place much better than what we came into.”
From Kingston, Jamaica on 20 June 2011 to Southampton, England on 20 June 2021, Virat Kolhi has defined a decade of Indian Test cricket.