Having announced that he is stepping down as India’s Test captain, Virat Kohli has ended the era of the 33-year-old in all formats.
Kohli’s seven-year tenure as India’s Test captain may have ended with a series loss in South Africa, but his time in charge produced historically successful results.
Kohli has 68 Test caps as India’s captain, the most of any Indian captain, while his 40 wins as captain are the most of any Indian player. Those 40 wins also make Kohli the fourth most successful captain in Test history, behind only Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh.
His best innings include the following:
1. In 2014, Virat Kohli scored 141 off 175 balls in Adelaide against Australia.
Day 5 of the Adelaide Oval Pitch was the second innings of the Test Match. In 98 overs, India needed 364 runs to win. Vijay and Virat put up a partnership of 185 runs against Nathan Lyon’s powerful Australian bowling attack when the scoreboard read 57/2. Despite losing by 48 runs, Kohli’s innings will go down as one of his best.
2. Virat Kohli (133 off 86 balls) scored 133 against Srilanka at Hobart in 2012.
In order to qualify for the finals of the Triangular Series, India had to win the match with a bonus point against Sri Lanka. Batting first, Sri Lanka posted a mammoth total of 320/4 in their first innings. For India to get a bonus point, they needed to chase the target in 40 overs. It seemed as though it was an impossible task, but India chased the target comfortably in 37th over itself with Kohli and Gambhir’s brilliance. This match also led to the famous Kohli-Malinga rivalry in which Kohli scored 24 runs in one over of Malinga.
3. In World T20 2016, Virat Kohli scored 82 runs off 51 balls against Australia in Mohali.
India and Australia played each other in the second last league match of WT20 2016. When Australia batting first, it was 160/6 after 20 overs. Within no time, India was reduced to 49/3 in 8 overs due to a poor opening partnership. With Yuvraj gone, India recovered slightly and reached 94/4 in 14 overs. Captain Dhoni helped Virat chase the target with five balls to spare. Kohli won this match with pure cricket shots and excellent running between the wickets with Dhoni.
4. At Pune in 2017, Virat Kohli scored 122 off 105 balls against England.
As a full-time ODI captain, Kohli made his debut in this match. In the first innings, England scored 350 runs. With the bat, England’s stars were Jason Roy, Joe Root, and Ben Stokes. Once again, India’s innings was very poor and they were reduced to 63/4 with Rohit, KL Rahul, Yuvraj and Dhoni in the pavilion. In the next over, Virat and Kedhar Jadhav added 200 runs from 146 balls to turn the match. Virat scored 122 runs off 105 deliveries to lead the chase. Kedhar Jadhav scored the 4th fastest century by an Indian in ODIs from 65 balls and finished with 120 from 76 balls. The match was concluded with Hardik Pandya and Ashwin eliminating any remaining hurdles.
5. India won the game in Jaipur in 2013 thanks to Virat Kohli (100 off 52 balls).
The series was 0-1 after India lost to Australia in the first match at Pune, and the pressure was on the team to win the second match. The Australian team scored a staggering 350 points. It would have been impossible for an Indian to chase the total after the first innings. The Australian bowlers were all over the park when Kohli came into the crease after Dhawan’s dismissal. The faster Indian to score a century in ODIs, Kohli completed his century from 52 balls. He scored 141 runs from 123 balls and was equally as dangerous as Kohli. With 39 balls to spare, India completed the second largest chase in the history of ODIs.
