Looking back at Virat Kohli's inspirational decade old tweet  

A decade and 20801 runs later, Virat Kohli has quite possibly achieved what he set out for- 'scoring lots of runs for my Team'.

Perseverance and discipline have landed Kohli at the summit of the run-charts in a decade, outscoring the likes of Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, and even Sachin Tendulkar.

Ever since making his way into the Indian team in early 2010, the Indian cricket fanbase has been witness to an inspiring transformation from the best batsman to an inspiring leader on and off the field. Scoring runs in every nook and corner of the world, Kohli has earned his team's respect with the sheer amount of runs he amassed in this decade.

Looking forward to scoring lots of runs for my Team..

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) March 16, 2010

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Goals that were set by the captain a decade earlier were achieved in the most ruthless of styles. It has been a long journey of 382 matches (across all formats) between 2010-2019. The captain topped the batting charts in ODIs, scoring 11036 runs in 224 matches at an average of 61.31 with 42 hundreds and 51 half-centuries (with three more ODIs against the West Indies still to be played before the decade comes to an end).

As far as T20Is are concerned, his 2563 runs came at an average of 51.26 in 74 matches, most by any batsmen in the decade and followed closely by his limited-overs deputy Rohit Sharma. With one more T20I left to play, Kohli will have one more chance to add to his T20I flourishes.

In Tests matches, the Indian captain stands third in the list of highest run-getters of this decade, falling behind only to former and current England captains Alastair Cook and Joe Root respectively.

Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis

When the most prolific strikers of the ball struggled to make a mark after being handed the added responsibility of captaining their side, Kohli blossomed post-Dhoni's departure as captain. Kohli has scored 10810 runs and 41 centuries in all three formats of the game ever since taking up the top job.

Virat Kohli tops the charts in the most runs scored in a decade

He became the first player to score 20k runs in a single decade, eclipsing the herculean efforts of Australia's Ricky Ponting and South Africa's Jacques Kallis.

But the story continues and the scariest thing for the opposition teams is the superhuman fitness levels and the mental strength that Kohli possesses at the age of 31, a factor that may well determine which way the coming decade is headed towards.