Virat Kohli, the captain of India’s T20I national team, has stepped down as a captain across all formats. Virat’s retirement had caught many of his fans off guard. Fans who were in the middle of browsing 30 free spins list by Zamsino.com, were left in shock after the news hit.
Virat who also played for Delhi in the domestic cricket league, as well as for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman has decided to finally retire. Kohli is often referred to as the best batsman of his era, while critics also refer to Kohli as one of the best limited-overs batsmen in the history of cricket. Virat made his Test debut in 2011 and has been winning awards ever since. With that in mind, let’s have a look at Virat Kohli’s whirlwind career.
Early career years
Virat Kohli was born on November 5, 1988. He was part of the West Delhi Cricket Academy’s first intake at nine years of age. He first played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 as part of the 2002–03 Polly Umrigar Trophy and became captain of the team for the same Trophy in 2003-04 season.
He was selected for the Delhi Under-17 team in the late 2004 for the Vjay Merchant Trophy, which Delhi won during the 2004-05 season where Kohli finished as the highest run-scorer with 757 runs from 7 matches.
In February 2006. Kohli made his List A debut for Delhi when the team faced Services. Kohli later made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tami Nadu. At the age of 18, Kohli scored 10 runs in his debut innings. His highlight moment was on the day his father passed away back in 2006. Kohli decided to play against Karnataka where he scored 90 and attended his father’s funeral after the match.
Career awards
For the first time, Virat Kohli reached the number one spot in the ICC rankings for the ODI batsman in 2013. He also won the Man of the Tournament award twice at the ICC World Twenty20 in 2014 and 2016 respectively.
He also currently holds the world record of being the fastest cricket player to reach 23,000 international runs. Since the beginning of his professional cricket career, Kohli has earned many awards.
Some of the most prominent awards include Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Decade during 2011-2020, ICC Cricketer of the Year in 2017 and 2018 respectively, ICC Player of the year 2018, ICC ODI Player of the Year 2012, 2017 and 2018.
He also won the Arjuna Award at the national level back in 2013, the Padma Shri award under the sports category in 2017, as well as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award back in 2018, which is the highest sporting honor any player can receive in India.
ESPN ranked Kohli the world’s most famous athlete in 2018, while Forbes ranked Kohli the most valuable athlete during the same year.
He also reached the Time magazine one of the 100 most influential people, as well as being ranked 66th in the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 by Forbes. Kohli’s estimated earnings are placed at just over $26million.
Retirement announcement
Back in September 2021, Virat Kohli announced that he would be stepping down as India’s national team captain following the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021. Later in December 2021, Virat was replaced as India’s ODI captain of the team by Rohit Sharma.
Sourav Ganguly, president of the BCCI explained that the decision to drop Virat Kohli as ODI captain was due to selectors not feeling right about having two white ball captains. The president later said that the BCCI told Virat not to step down as T20I captain.
Virat, on the other hand, contradicted the president’s claims during a press conference claiming that his decision for stepping down as captain was well-received and termed “progressive” by the BCCI officials.
Virat also claimed that the chief selector Chetan Sharma informed Virat about his removal as the ODI captain 90-minutes before the announcement of the Test squad for India’s tour of South Africa. Kohli stepped down as India’s Test captain on January 15, 2022.
Closing Words
Virat Kohli is undoubtedly one of the best cricket players of all time. His retirement disappointed many of his personal fans, as well as cricket fans all over the world. Considering his astonishing career and accomplishments, Virat deserves to enjoy his retirement from cricket.
