Virat Kohli's favourite opponents in IPL, T20I, ODI and Tests

Virat Kohli has risen in quick time from being India's best batsman after Sachin Tendulkar to one of the world's greatest batsmen of all-time. By the time he retires, he will have most of the cricketing records under his belt.

Virat has been playing non-stop cricket throughout his career, and it has not deterred him from performing well above the benchmark on the world stage. Kohli has a batting average of 59.84, 54.58, 47.86 in ODIs, Tests and T20Is respectively. There is no cricketer in the world who is as consistent as Kohli across the three formats.

His passion for the game has not only driven him to success. It has motivated hundreds of current and next generation cricketers to reach the glory through hard-work and dedication.

There are few teams against whom Virat Kohli batted consistently well. In this article, we are going to analyze about one team, each in IPL, T20, ODI and Tests, against whom the current Indian Captain has been at his monstrous best.

#1 Delhi Daredevils - Virat's favourite IPL opponent

Virat maintains an astonishing record against Delhi Daredevils in IPL

Virat Kohli calls himself a "typical" Delhi boy. His affinity for Delhi is very evident if we retrospect his IPL batting performance. Delhi Daredevils, so far, has been the favourite opponent for the champion batsman in his 10-year IPL career.

The Indian batsman has played 155 IPL games and scored 4948 runs at an average of just 38.36. However, he has played 19 matches against Daredevils and scored a whopping 761 runs at an average of 69.18. His average almost doubles if he plays against his home-based franchise.

He has also scored eight fifties from 18 innings with the highest being 99. His strike-rate too increases by 10 if he plays against Delhi Daredevils.

Though he averages 70.74 and 90.33 against Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiant respectively, he played fewer games against them to call them his favourite team.

#2 Australian cricket team - Virat's favourite T20I opponent

Kohli's epic knock against Australia helped India to reach the semi-finals in 2016 World T20

Virat Kohli has played only 62 International T20 games so far in his career. Since 2017, he skipped most of the T20 bilateral tournaments to manage his hectic workload. However, he plays against the tougher opponents, especially away from home.

Australia and England are the two teams against whom he played one-third of his T20I games. And, Australia is his clear favourite between the two teams.

Against Australia, Virat Kohli played 12 games and scored 427 runs at a batting average of 53.38 which is six runs more than his career average. He helped India white-wash Australia at their home by a 3 - 0 margin scoring 90*, 59* and 50 in the three games. His strike-rate too is much better against Australia than this career strike-rate.

Kohli has had a rare failure against Australia in the 1st T20I at Brisbane and will be looking to improve his performance in the next two games.

#3 New Zealand cricket team - Virat's favourite ODI opponent

Kohli has scored well against New Zealand

Virat Kohli has played 216 games and scored 10232 runs at an average of 59.84. At the age of just 30, he has established himself as one of the stalwarts of the ODI games. He amassed 38 hundred and will probably break Sachin's 49 ODI tons in no time.

Virat Kohli shifts to the beast mode when he plays against New Zealand in ODIs. He has scored five hundred and six fifties against the Kiwis from just nineteen games. He has aggregated 1154 runs at an average of 72.12 runs per match against a quality Kiwi attack.

His last nine scores against New Zealand vindicates why they are his favourite opponents.The stats read 82, 85*, 9, 154*, 45, 65, 121, 29 and 113.

India is touring New Zealand in early 2019 and has a schedule to play five ODIs there. Virat will be looking to score big once again.

#4 Sri Lankan Cricket team - Virat's favourite Test opponent

Kohli has amassed 1004 runs from just nine games against Sri Lanka

Kohli, who was maintaining an average of around 47 till 2015 in tests, has drastically improved his consistency in Tests since then.

He averaged 75.94 and 75.64 in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Despite playing most of the matches in alien conditions in 2018, he is averaging 59 in 2018. Currently, Virat has a healthy average of 54.58 from his 73 test matches.

There is one team - Sri Lanka - against whom Virat Kohli was always phenomenal. He has amassed 1004 runs from just nine games he played against them. He is averaging 77.23 against Sri Lanka which 20 more than his career average. He has scored five hundred which includes two massive double centuries from just 15 innings.

Virat's last four scores against the Island Nation read 104*, 213, 243 and 50.