It was on August 18, 2008, that a 19-year-old Virat Kohli, who had two the Under-19 World Cup as a captain a few months before, made his first appearance in international cricket for India. The occasion was the first ODI against Sri Lanka on the tour of 2008 and Kohli opened the innings along with his Delhi and India teammate Gautam Gambhir.
It wasn’t the best outing for the current Indian skipper as he only managed to score as he managed just 12 runs as India were bowled out for a meager total of 146 as they suffered a loss as well, but that day witnessed a buddy cricketing who was going to the chase master in future. By the time Virat will call it quits on his career, he will surely become one of the greatest players of Indian cricket.
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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) congratulated Kohli on the 13th anniversary of his international debut and so did Kohli’s Indian Premier League (IPL) team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). BCCI tweeted: “#OnThisDay in 2008, @imVkohli
made his debut in international cricket. 13 years later, with Keycap digit fourKeycap digit threeKeycap digit eight international matches & Keycap digit twoKeycap digit two,Keycap digit nineKeycap digit threeKeycap digit seven runs under his belt, the #TeamIndia captain remains one of the finest cricketers going around.”
#OnThisDay in 2008, @imVkohli made his debut in international cricket.
13 years later, with 4⃣3⃣8⃣ international matches & 2⃣2⃣,9⃣3⃣7⃣ runs under his belt, the #TeamIndia captain remains one of the finest cricketers going around. 👏 🙌 pic.twitter.com/hQaihyNQJF
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 18, 2021
RCB tweeted: ” The Start of an Era: #OnThisDay in 2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣8️⃣,@imVkohli took his first steps on the International stage, making his ODI debut for Flag of India against Flag of Sri Lanka in Dambulla. #PlayBold #TeamIndia #13YearsOfViratKohli”.
#OnThisDay in 2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣8️⃣, @imVkohli began his journey in International cricket, making his debut for 🇮🇳 against 🇱🇰.
From an ambitious young cricketer to one of the best batsmen the game has ever seen, it’s been one incredible journey! 🤩#PlayBold #12YearsOfViratKohli pic.twitter.com/CTcmum4Y8z
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) August 18, 2020
In the past 13 years, Kohli has surpassed a plethora of milestones including leading Team India to the no.1 position in the ICC Test rankings in 2016. He is second on the list of highest scorers for India on ODIs with 12,169 runs, only behind his mentor Sachin Tendulkar’s 18,426, and has scored 70 tons in international cricket behind Tendulkar’s 100. He is the fastest to reach 10,000 runs ODIs.
Kohli succeeded MS Dhoni as India’s Test captain in 2015, and ODI and T20I captain in 2017. He has already amassed 7,609 runs in Test cricket and holds the record for the most double hundreds (7) among Indian batsmen in Tests.
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The Delhi cricketer has played three IPL finals – 2009, 2011, and 2016 – but is yet to win a title with RCB, with whom he has remained since the inception of the league in 2008. He will look to change that when IPL 2021 phase 2 gets underway in the UAE from September 19.
