5 things Virat Kohli is yet to achieve in his career

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Virat Kohli after scoring his 28th ODI century

Ever since making his debut in 2008, Virat Kohli has established himself with some consistent performances for the Men in Blue across formats. If he continues to bat the way he is batting, he will finish his career as one of the best players to have played the game.

Recently, he became the batsman with the most number of centuries in run chases in ODIs and the fastest to score 8000 ODI runs. Adding to this, he has 28 centuries in ODIs, which is third among the batsmen (tied with Sanath Jayasuriya) with most ODI centuries with just Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar ahead of him.

Kohli has created so many other records in his nine-year long career. Still, there are few things that he is yet to achieve. Let us take a look at five things Kohli is yet to achieve in his career.

Extra cover: Virat Kohli scored a century and roared; it was a sense of deja vu in the right way


#1 Winning the World T20

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A dejected Virat Kohli after India’s loss to West Indies in the 2016 World T20 semis

Virat Kohli came into the reckoning by leading India to victory in the 2008 Under-19 World Cup. He also went on to win the World Cup in his very first attempt and added an ICC Champions Trophy to his bag when MS Dhoni led the Indian team to glory in 2013. He is one of the very few players to have won the under-19 World Cup, Champions Trophy and the World Cup in his career.

One silverware that has eluded Kohli though is the World T20 trophy. He has played three editions so far, failing to lift the trophy even once. India failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the 2012 World T20 and in the 2014 edition, Kohli amassed 319 runs in 6 innings at an average of 107 and a strike-rate of 130. However, that wasn't enough for the Delhi batsman to lift the trophy as India lost to Sri Lanka by six wickets in the final.

A couple of years later, Kohli was in the form of his life and with the World T20 scheduled to take place in India, everyone was convinced that his wait for a World T20 trophy would be over. Once again, he took the tournament (excluding the qualifiers) by storm by scoring 273 runs in five matches at an average of 137 and a strike-rate of 147. In spite of having numbers that one can only dream of, Kohli couldn’t take India to glory as the Men in Blue lost to eventual champions West Indies in the semis.

With the next edition of the World T20 scheduled to take place in 2020, Kohli will be determined to lay his hands on the only trophy that is missing from his trophy cabinet.

#2 Test century in England

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Kohli had a miserable time in England in 2014

Virat Kohli has stamped his authority against all opposition all over the world. He has dominated the Aussie bowling line-up in Australia, owned West Indies in the Caribbean islands, scored a lot of runs against the Kiwis in New Zealand and the Proteas in South Africa. But, one country which the Indian captain is yet to conquer is England.

In ODIs, Kohli has scored 682 runs in 19 innings at an average of 52 and registered a century in his very first outing in the country. But, he couldn’t replicate the same success in the longer format as the right-hander found it very difficult to get going in conditions that had him dancing to the tunes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

He played five Tests in England in 2014 and managed to score just 134 runs in 10 innings at an average of 13.40 when compared to 977 runs in 25 innings against the same opposition both home and away. That series still remains the only pale patch in Kohli’s illustrious career that started in 2008. He will be motivated to turn around his fortunes when he leads the Indian team in England in 2018.

#3 Test centuries against all the Test playing nations

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Will Kohli ever face Pakistan in Tests?

Virat Kohli is one of the very few cricketers to have a scored an ODI century against all the Test playing nations (except Afghanistan (0 innings) and Ireland (2 innings)). But, the same cannot be said of him in the Test format as he is yet to score one against Pakistan and Zimbabwe.

To be fair, Kohli has not played a single Test against both these oppositions as the Indian government is against the Indian team playing Pakistan and India’s last Test against Zimbabwe came way back in 2005, six years before Kohli made his debut in the longer format. Out of the 16 centuries he has scored in the format, six of them came against Australia (four in one series in 2014-15), three each against England and New Zealand and one apiece against all the other teams.

In spite of scoring these many centuries, Kohli will be itching to score one against Pakistan as scoring a century against your arch-rival is always a special moment for any batsman. Having said that, both the governments should settle their differences and let the teams play a bilateral series.

#4 T20I century

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Virat Kohli’s highest score in T20Is is 90*

16 Test centuries in 97 innings and 28 ODI tons in 181 innings are outstanding for any cricketer. Scoring a century every six innings is not very easy for a batsman. But, Kohli has managed to achieve that in his international career. However, a century in T20Is has eluded him.

In the 47 innings he has played in T20Is, he has scored 16 fifties, the most by any batsman, but, has failed to convert even one of those fifties into a century, with an unbeaten 90 being his highest score. Kohli is no stranger to scoring a century in T20s as he has already scored four for his IPL side Royal Challengers Bangalore. Incidentally, he didn’t score a T20 century before the 2016 season and went on to score four in one edition, the most by any batsman.

If he manages to score one in T20Is, he will become the fourth Indian batsman to score a century in all the three formats after Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.

Along with a T20I century, Kohli is yet to score 300 in Tests and a double century in ODIs. Maybe he should seek advice from his teammate and deputy Rohit Sharma.

#5 World number 1 Test ranking

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Will the undisputed King in ODIs and T20Is reach the summit of the Test batsmen’s rankings?

Virat Kohli is the undisputed king when it comes to batting in ODIs and T20Is, something that is evident from his rankings. The Indian captain is ranked 1 in both ODIs and T20Is with rating points of 865 and 799 respectively.

He has been to the top of the batting charts in ODIs several times but hasn’t been at the helm of the ICC rankings for batsmen in Tests even once in his career. His career best ranking in Tests was No. 2 when ICC released the rankings after the fourth Test against England in Mumbai in 2016. He also attained his career-best points in Test cricket during that period with 886 points, 68 more than his current tally (818) for which is he is fifth in the rankings.

It is unlikely that his current competitors (Kane Williamson, Joe Root and Steve Smith) will reach the top of the ODI and T20I batsmen’s rankings and this makes Kohli a favourite to become the first batsman to top the batsmen’s rankings in all three formats at the same time.

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Edited by Staff Editor