Happy Birthday, Virat Kohli: There are More Than 27 Thousand Runs and 80 Centuries he Has Scored!

Hyderabad: Records are meant to be broken and Virat Kohli, who celebrates his 36th birthday on November 5, has literally taken to the phrase. When talisman Sachin Tendulkar ended a glittering career, very few wondered if there could be another cricketer who could scale, set new records, create new benchmarks and take the cricketing world by storm and it was then that Virat Kohli put up his hand.

In a glittering career, that is now almost a decade and a half old in the top flight of world cricket, Kohli has owned many batting records. When he led India to the ICC U-19 World Cup win in 2008, not many knew that it was just the start of many things to come.

In Test matches, Kohli has donned the Indian whites in 118 matches and has scored 9.040 runs at an average of 47.83, with a highest score of an unbeaten 254. He has also scored 29 Test match centuries.

He is also one of India’s most successful Test captains with 40 wins in 68 Test matches and a win percentage of 58.\

However, in two World Test Championship Finals that he has played in, the Indian team finished as the second-best team losing to New Zealand and Australia, respectively.

It was in ODIs that the 36-year-old earned the moniker as Chase Master. He has scored 13,906 runs in 295 ODI matches at an average of 58.18. He has scored 50 centuries, eclipsing the record held by Sachin Tendulkar, with 49 tons.

He has also scored 5,786 runs at an average of 90.40 in successful run chases.

In the ICC ODI World Cups, Kohli’s best came in the 2023 edition, held in India, where the talismanic batter finished the World Cup with 765 runs and was awarded the player of the tournament title.

He is also the second-highest run-scorer in World Cup history, with 1,795 runs in 37 matches.

Kohli owned the T20 international stage and scored 4,188 runs in 125 matches, with one century and 38 fifties.

In the ICC T20 World Cup history, Kohli is the highest scorer with 1,292 runs in 35 World Cup matches. The Chase Master has scored 1,651 runs in India’s successful chases at an average of 78.61.

However, as every player would have a chink in their armour, Kohli’s chink lies in not winning the World Test Championship final (so far) and an Indian Premier League title. Kohli is now the leading run-scorer in IPL with 8,004 runs in 252 matches.

He has won the Orange Cap twice and the 2016 season was the breakthrough season for the Delhi-based cricket where he scored a staggering 973 runs in the season.

Overall, Virat Kohli has scored 27,134 runs across all formats of the game and has scored 80 centuries.

What sets Kohli apart is the hunger, the talent, the resilience and his ability to answer critics with the bat. He has been down in the dumps on many occasions but his ability and his perseverance to breach benchmarks, create new ones and breach them too, has stood the test of time.

As one of the best cricketers in the world, there is always more coming up from the talented batter and former captain. Happy Birthday, Virat Kohli.