Happy Birthday, Virat Kohli

It was already a tough tour for India Down Under as they were whitewashed in the 4-match Test series and the T20 series was drawn at 1-all. With a bonus point scenario against Sri Lanka to qualify for the final of the tri-series, the equations were crystal clear. Chase the target inside 40 overs and have an outside chance of reaching the Final.

Sri Lanka posted a mammoth 319 on the board and India were left with an uphill task of chasing the target in 40 overs to gain a bonus point. India eventually chased down the target inside 37 overs and comfortably won the bonus point. The hero of the chase wasn’t Sehwag or Sachin but new hero Virat KohliL who was born in Hobart that day.

With an unbeaten 133 off 86 balls, Virat led the chase with a' coming of age' performance against Sri Lanka. As we look back at Virat Kohli's stellar career on his 30th birthday, that innings versus Sri Lanka had a crucial impact. In the next 4 innings, he scored 3 hundreds, including his career best of 183 against arch-rivals Pakistan. and it’s safe to say, from thereon Virat Kohli the ODI maestro was upon us.

Kohli in action during the 2011 ICC World Cup Final

By the time we witnessed that exquisite knock in Hobart, Virat Kohli was already a regular in the ODI side and was a World Cup winner. With Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dhoni in the top 6 it was certain that a young Virat Kohli was just a cog in the machine and not a leader in that batting order. But he always played some responsible innings whenever the team needed.

For instance, that crucial knock of 34 in the World Cup Final. He walked in at a score of 31 for 2 and stitched an important partnership with fellow Delhi mate Gambhir to reconstruct the innings. By the time Kohli was out, India had 114 on the board.

But Kohli the chase master isn’t only about constructing innings. He often modified his approach of play, according to the team's requirements. India has successfully chased 350-plus scores thrice in their history, and every time they did so, Virat Kohli has scored a century, but the manner in which the hundreds were scored was quite different. It was chased twice in the 2013 home series versus Australia and once against England in Pune last year. Against the Kangaroos, Kohli scored 2 centuries, of which one was the fastest hundred by an Indian and the other was the 3rd fastest. While in Pune, after a bad start he allowed Kedar Jadhav to play freely and took the anchor's role himself.

From the time Virat made his ODI debut as a young Delhi boy with the U-19 World Cup triumph just a few months old, he never really struggled in the format. But the format in which he had a slow start was Test Cricket. He made his debut against the Windies in 2011 and didn’t have good series in the Caribbean and was subsequently dropped from the England tour.

When he was recalled in the side for Australia tour, he didn’t have a great start to the series and was in a do-or-die situation in the Perth Test to be in the side. He kept his place in the side with responsible knocks of 44 and 75. With 116 in the first innings in Adelaide, he brought up his maiden Test match hundred, which was followed with an aggressive celebration, something which was a certainty in his early days.

After Tendulkar's retirement, Kohli was assigned the task of filling his big shoes and he didn’t disappoint, with a good innings whenever the team needed, including hundreds against New Zealand as well as South Africa. But when he toured Australia for the second time in his career, he had the extra pressure of being the Captain. But as is the case with Virat, if there is huge pressure, you expect a huge performance as well. With MS Dhoni injured for the 1st Test in Adelaide, Virat was asked to lead and he came out with flying colors.

Hundreds in both the innings of his debut Test as Captain and the decision to go for the target on the final day was a trailer of the things to expect from Kohli the Captain. After Dhoni announced his surprise retirement from Tests, Kohli became the full-time captain. India has been No. 1 in for quite some time now under Kohli’s Captaincy and along with magnificent success at home, victories away from will surely be on his mind.

Along with the Test and ODI cricketer that he is, it’s harsh to forget his achievements as a T20 player. Man of the Tournament at the last 2 editions of the World T20 and over 2100 runs at an average of 49 - his achievements for India are second to none.

But Kohli isn’t only an International cricketer. How can we forget the wonderful memories he has given us to cherish in the IPL. Being the only player to have represented only 1 franchise over all the 11 seasons, his name is synonymous with the Royal Challengers Bangalore. In the earlier years, like in the Indian team, he was a supporting cast in RCB as he usually was at the non-striker's end to witness Chris Gayle's heroics but he always had a decent record in the tournament.

But it was in 2016 that he did something unreal; something unimaginable. 973 runs at an average of 81 with 4 hundreds to his name as he led RCB into the final for the 3rd time and for the first time since being their full-time Captain. His team eventually lost in the finals.

As Kohli looks back at his staggering career there will hardly be any disappointments as a batsman. As he became the fastest to cross the 10,000-run mark in ODIs last month he will surely desire to continue at the same pace and cross more milestones and score more centuries.

Since being the full-time ODI skipper, he has lost only 1 bilateral series and led India to the Champions Trophy Final where they lost to arch-rivals Pakistan. To put behind the disappointment of the same, he will try to put up a good show at the World Cup next year, his first as a captain and will hope to replicate the success he got in 2011 as a player. Before the World Cup, there is a grueling series against Australia as India attempts to win their first series Down Under and leave behind the pain of the defeats in England and South Africa this year.

A very happy birthday Kohli. Hope you continue to entertain us the same way as you have done all these years and give us more opportunities to enjoy the phenomenon that you are.