Virat Kohli is undoubtedly the king of cricket.
Whether it be chasing down steep targets, scoring centuries almost at will, or walking the talk at press conferences and on the field, the former India cricket team captain has done everything effortlessly.
The game of cricket has seen numerous greats over the past century, but very few players have ruled the arena like Virat Kohli.
Virat Kohli has shared the dressing room with modern-day cricket greats like captain cool MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma – who is also considered the new god of cricket after Sachin Tendulkar, Mr. 360 AB de Villiers, the incredible Chris Gayle and many more legends of the game. But, none has managed to be as prolific as King Kohli in the past decade.
Below are the reasons why the king of cricket Virat Kohli was adjudged the ICC Cricketer of the decade award in 2020.
Why is Virat Kohli the king of cricket: By the numbers
Virat Kohli is on the top of the list of batsmen with the most centuries against one team in One Day International cricket. Against West Indies, Kohli has scored a whopping nine centuries, which is on the level with Indian team legend Sachin Tendulkar, who has nine centuries against Australia. However, Kohli attained the feat in just 42 matches. Kohli also has eight centuries against Australia and Sri Lanka, five against New Zealand and four against South Africa in ODI cricket.
- Virat Kohli is also the fastest to tally 12000 runs in ODI cricket. He had taken just 251 matches to reach the milestone leaving behind the likes of Tendulkar (300 matches), Ricky Ponting (314 matches), Kumar Sangakkara (336 matches), Sanath Jayasuriya (379 matches) and Mahela Jayawardene (399 matches). Many of India’s successful chases have come riding on his batting prowess. Team India has massively risen in ICC rankings for years owing to Kohli.
- Kohli’s number only get better in the T20 format. He is the player with the most number of Man of the Series award in T20I cricket with seven awards to his name. Players like Babar Azam, Glenn Maxwell, David Warner and more are all below him. He also remains consistent across all the three cricket formats with 19 Player of the Series awards in Test matches, ODIs and T20Is combined – the second-highest by any player.
- Virat Kohli is also the batsman with the highest career batting average at 51.50 in T2oI cricket. Mohammad Rizwan closely follows him at 51.21, while the rest are not even near the figure.
- Virat Kohli also has the most number of half-centuries in T20Is with 30 fifties to his name in 97 matches.
Virat Kohli: Batting stats in international cricket
| Format | Matches | Runs | Highest score | Average | 100s | 50s |
| Test | 108 | 8416 | 254* | 48.93 | 28 | 28 |
| ODI | 274 | 12898 | 183 | 57.32 | 46 | 65 |
| T20I | 115 | 4008 | 122* | 52.73 | 1 | 37 |
| T20 | 360 | 11326 | 122* | 40.88 | 6 | 85 |
One of the finest cricketers today and easily a modern-day legend, Virat Kohli boasts of numbers not many could match in the history of the game. It also goes on to justify the honour of ICC Men’s ODI Player of the Decade that was endowed upon the king of cricket.
In 100 Test matches, Virat Kohli has tallied 8007 runs with his highest score being an unbeaten 257. He averages 50.35 with 27 centuries to his name and 28 half-centuries. He sits second with an elite group of cricketers who have scored two double hundreds in a Test series. Kohli is also the only cricketer apart from Sunil Gavaskar to have scored four centuries in a single Test series.
Kohli’s stats turn gold in the ODI format, where he has tallied over 12000 runs in 260 matches with a whopping 43 tons and 64 fifties to his name. He has the second most centuries in the format. Kohli also sits third in the list of most runs (453) scored in a series and fifth in the list of most hundreds (5) scored in a calendar year.
T20Is is the only format where he doesn’t have a century but Kohli makes up for it with 30 half-centuries – the most by any batsman in the format. At 51.50, Kohli has the highest batting average in T20Is as well. With 298 boundaries hit in T20Is, Kohli has hit the second-most number of fours in the shortest format after Ireland’s PR Stirling.
Quotes about the King of Cricket Virat Kohli
If you want to know how the team is performing, look at Kohli’s face. – Nasser Hussain
To become a good player, you need talent. To become a great player, you need an attitude like Kohli’s.” — Sunil Gavaskar
This guy is abusing the form he’s in. The kookaburra can’t take any more punishment.” – Darren Sammy
There’s no shame in being beaten by a genius. Virat Kohli is a freak.” – Michael Vaughan
The kind of form he’s in, he picked this ball yesterday afternoon.” – Harsha Bhogle
I’ve not seen Sir Don bat, but maybe I have. – Aakash Chopra
Virat Kohli: Captaincy Record
While Virat Kohli doesn’t have any major titles to show as a Team India skipper, he has definitely been a very successful captain in the Test format. Captain the country in 68 Test matches, Kohli has led India to 40 wins thus making him incredibly successful in the longest format with a win percentage of 59.
In ODIs, Kohli is the fourth most successful Indian captain with 65 wins in 95 matches, after Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly and Mohammed Azharuddin. However, he remained the second-highest run-scorer with 5449 as an Indian skipper after MS Dhoni (6641). With 21 hundred as Team India captain, Kohli is also only behind Ricky Ponting on the list of captains with most centuries.
He is also the second most successful Indian T20I captain after MS Dhoni with 30 wins in 50 T20I matches. He had reached 1000 T20I runs in just 30 matches, thus making him the quickest to reach that milestone as a skipper. There are many more milestones of King Kohli that we cannot cover in this blog.
FAQs
Who is the king of cricket in India?
The king of cricket in India is undoubtedly Virat Kohli with over 23000 runs across all three formats in international cricket.
Who is the king of cricket captain?
Former Indian cricket player MS Dhoni is the king of cricket captain with all the three major ICC titles under his belt and a win percentage of 53.61.
Who is the king of cricket in IPL?
Four-time title winners Chennai Super Kings are the king of cricket IPL with the highest win percentage of 59.83.
Who is the sixer king of cricket?
West Indies big-hitter Chris Gayle is the sixer king of cricket with 553 sixes hit in his international cricket career.
Who is the king of cricket 2019?
Virat Kohli was the king of cricket in 2019 after he ended the year with 2455 runs. He had scored 7 centuries and 14 half-centuries across all three formats.
Who is the new king of cricket?
Virat Kohli is the new king of cricket
