This Day That Year: Virat Kohli made his T20I debut
One of the best batsmen and Indian Cricket captain, Virat
Kohli made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe on 12th June 2010. He has
become the backbone of the Indian batting line up along with Rohit Sharma.
The Indian Team restricted Zimbabwe to just 111 for 9 in 20
overs. Chasing 112 runs to win, Kohli came at number 5 and played with
confidence remaining not out on 26 off 21 balls with 3 fours and 1 six. He
along with Yusuf Pathan guided India to a comfortable 6 wicket win with 30 balls
to spare.
Kohli has tremendous consistency in the T20I format. During
the 2014 World T20 tournament played in Bangladesh, he was the leading
runs-scorer with 319 runs from 6 matches (6 innings) with 4 half-centuries to
his name. His best score in the tournament was 77. Despite his brilliance,
India lost to Sri Lanka in the finals. For his 319 runs, Kohli was awarded the
man of the series award.
Again, in the 2016 World T20 played in India, Kohli was the
only Indian player to show great consistency. He scored 273 runs from 5 matches
( 5 innings) with 3 half-centuries. His best score in the tournament was a match-winning 82* against Australia in the virtual quarterfinals played at Mohali. Despite his
great performances in the tournament, India was stunned by West Indies in the
semi-finals played at Mumbai.
Virat Kohli was appointed as the captain of the Indian Team
in 2017. He has led in 37 matches with 22 wins, 11 losses, 2 tied and 2
no-result matches with a win percentage of 65.71. Kohli led India to a historic
5-0 whitewash over New Zealand away from home in 2020.
As a batsman, Kohli is the leading run-getter in the T20I
format. He has scored so far with 2794 runs from 82 matches (76 innings) at an
average of 50.80. Apart from leading run-getter, Kohli has the record of most
half-centuries with 24.
During the 2015/2016 tour of Australia, Kohli made his
highest T20I score remaining not out on 90 off 55 balls in the first T20I
played at Adelaide Oval on 26th January 2016. He has the best averages
while run chase across this format also.
From 2016 onwards, Kohli has been a consistent performer for
Team India. In 2016, he was the leading run-getter with 641 runs from 15
matches (13 innings) with 7 half-centuries. His best score in 2016 was 90*
against Australia.
In 2017, Kohli performed decently with 299 runs from 10
matches (10 innings) with 2 half-centuries. His best score in the year was 82.
The year 2018 was not an impressive year in T20I for Kohli
as he scored just 211 runs from 10 matches (9 innings) with only 1 half-century.
His best score was 61*.
After missing the T20I series against Bangladesh at home
last year, he returned as ODI captain for the West Indies series. Chasing down
a massive 208 runs target in the T20I international against West Indies on 6th
December at Hyderabad, Kohli struggled a little before smashing them to all
parts of the ground remaining not out on a career-best score of 94 off 50 balls
that helped India chase down the target with 8 balls to spare.
He then showed his power-hitting skills in the 3rd
T20I at Mumbai on 11th December. Coming in the 13th over,
Kohli plundered the West Indies bowling line-up scoring 70 off 29 balls with 4
fours and 7 sixes that helped India post a massive total of 240 for 3.
Kohli running between the wickets and hitting the ball into
the gaps makes him a special batsman. He remains cool under pressure while
chasing down big totals and improvement in power-hitting has made him a consistent
player in T20I format too. The Indian captain is currently at number 10 in the latest ICC T20I batsman rankings.
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| Kohli made his T20I debut for India on 12th June 2010 |
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