Master of the Crease : The Virat Kohli Odyssey
This blog captures Virat Kohli’s mastery over the game of cricket and his journey to becoming one of the best in the sport. It’s sure to draw to you all who are interested in learning more about his life and career. This is divided into 7 segments involving his Early Life, struggles faced by him, his undisputed rise and the success attained by him to be one of the greatests of this game.
1. Birth and Early Life
- Virat Kohli was born on 5 November, 1988 in Delhi , India.
- He was born to a Punjabi - Hindu Family.
- His father , Prem Kohli used to work as a criminal lawyer and his mother , Saroj Kohli served as a housewife.
- He has an elder brother named Vikas and a sister named Bhawana.
- His formative years were spent in Uttam Nagar.
- He has attended the Vishal Bharti Public School and the Saviour Convent in New Delhi.
- Kohli's father was a bedridden for mouth and succumbed to cardiac arrest on December 18, 2006 . Kohli showed great courage and dedication by playing a crucial knock of ninety runs for Delhi against Karnataka on the day of his father's funeral.
2. Early Career
- He started training for the West Delhi Cricket Academy in 1998.
- In 2002, Virat played for Under-15 Delhi Team.
- He became the captain of U-15 Delhi Team in Polly Umragar Trophy.
- He was the highest run scorer in the 2003-04 Vijay Merchant Trophy Edition while representing U-17 Delhi Team.
- He made his LIST-A Debut against the Services in 2006.
- He was selected as part of the U-19 team and even toured England and Pakistan under Lalchand Rajput.
3. INTERNATIONAL STAGE
- The KING made his ODI Debut against the Lankan Lions on August 18, 2008.
- His TEST Debut came against the rocking Windies side on June 20, 2011.
- He also led the U-19 cricket team to a World Cup victory in the year 2008.
- He made his International T20i Debut against the side of Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club on June 12th,2010.
- IPL , often recognized as one of the finest sporting leagues of the world, gave this youngster a chance to flourish and made him get his IPL Debut for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2008.
# EARLY PERFORMANCES
Despite being a newcomer, Kohli adapted to the International Cricket Standards and showed promising performances in his early matches.
4. LIMITATIONS
- Decision Review System (DRS): Kohli has faced difficulties with the Decision Review System (DRS) in cricket. There have been instances where Kohli’s decision-making in terms of DRS has been questioned. He has been known to review decisions even when he is clearly out.
- Interactions with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI): Kohli has had a strained relationship with the BCCI at times, which has added to the challenges he has faced in his career.
- Expectations: As one of the world’s leading cricketers, the expectations on Kohli are incredibly high. This constant scrutiny and expectation can be seen as a limitation, as it adds extra pressure to each of his performances.
- Front-Foot Trigger Movement: He had a rather restricting trigger movement with his front-foot routinely coming across towards off-stump, thereby hindering the necessary movement to play back-foot shots such as the pull and the cut.
- The Fall of 2020 : Virat Kohli’s performance against spinners was notably poor in 2020. He averaged just 25.8 against spinners across all formats since 2020.
In September 2021, Virat Kohli announced that he would step down as India’s T20I captain after the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
He also stepped down as captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore.
In 2022, Virat Kohli stepped down as captain of India men’s Test team. He captained India in a record-breaking 68 Tests, winning 40 matches.
He had a terrible year in Test cricket in 2022. His struggles against spin were well documented (especially against Aussie spinner Todd Murphy).
While he had such issues and limitations with him, he decided to make a roaring comeback after he got a century against the Afghanis in the Asia Cup.
5. The RISE
- He equaled Sir Vivian Richard’s record for reaching the fastest five thousand runs in one-day internationals.
- He ushered in a new era in Indian cricket with his aggressive style of captaincy.
- Under-19 Success: Virat Kohli first tasted success on the world stage when India won the Under-19 World Cup in 2008 under his captaincy.
- Impressive Start: With MS Dhoni unavailable for the 1st Test of 2014/15 series in Australia, Kohli was handed the mantle of leadership for the Adelaide encounter. He responded to the responsibility with a hundred in each innings.
Despite of his failures in the beginning, the KING made a comeback like an injured lion does.
# SUCCESS
- Record-Breaking Performances: Kohli recently became the fastest to 20,000 international runs, has the most double centuries as captain and was the first cricketer to clean sweep the ICC awards.
- Home Domination: In the two-year period between 2016 and 2017, India were completely dominant at home under Kohli’s captaincy.
- Historic Win in Australia: Kohli has led India to a long stay at the top of the ICC Test rankings and a first-ever Test series win in Australia.
- Learning to Win Away: India began 2018 with the hope of winning their maiden Test series in South Africa. Although India lost the 2018 series in England by a 4-1 margin, the Tests were far more closely contested.
THE PERSON WHO WASN'T EVEN KNOWN FOR ONCE , BECAME THE AMBASSADOR OF INDIA TO CRICKET AND OBVIOUSLY CIVIL LINES WALE CHHOLE BHATURE :)
