It is often said or explained that one should choose or take his career profession seriously otherwise there is every chance of becoming a failure as there is no looking back in this competitive world. When Virat Kohli, the current Indian skipper, started his career, the seriousness and will to success were his trademarks, often out shining his opponents. He did become careless after winning the U-19 World Cup but timely realization of mistakes brought him back and now he is ruling world cricket. Whether it is about Test matches, ODIs or T20 internationals, Virat Kohli is always upto the task. His batting, captaincy, aggression and fielding is like some Bollywood ever green song or movie, which soothes ones ear or eyes when heard or seen. The class which he displays, the stroke making which he has, is mind blowing, an art which should be copied by budding cricketers.
Whenever he has been criticized, with which Virat has been living since years, his answer is in form of a century, full of aggressive batting. He played a match winning knock in the first ODI against Sri Lanka but twin failures were enough to question his commitment and form. This was the time he decided enough is enough. It was pretty evident from his batting in the fourth ODI, where he went on to complete his 29th ODI hundred, that he was giving it back to his haters. He didn’t stopped with this, hitting another century in the fifth ODI. Virat Kohli smashed his 30th one day international hundred to go joint second along with Ricky Ponting in the list of most centuries by an individual player. Sachin Tendulkar, who retired from international cricket, has scored a record 49 hundreds in the 50-overs cricket.
Kohli has been on a record-breaking spree and is already ahead of the Master Blaster in terms scoring hundreds in chases and successful chases. Kohli is also way ahead of both Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting to score his 30th century. After 186 innings, Tendulkar had scored 16 while Ponting had struck 15 hundreds. Ponting retired after playing 375 matches, amassing 13704 runs at 42.03. Tendulkar batted in 452 innings from 463 match in his ODI career, scoring a record 18426 runs at 44.83. If the current conversion rate of Kohli is taken into consideration, the India captain might well overhaul Tendulkar’s record with ease — in approximately 304 innings. At the current conversion rate, Kohli scores a ton every 6.2 innings and if he goes on to play as much as Tendulkar did — 452 innings, then the 28-year-old will have approximately 73 hundreds to his name in the fifty-over format. Kohli, who has a record 19 ODI hundreds in second innings, is also the second cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar to score more centuries than their age.
At the age of 28 years, Tendulkar had played 278 innings to score 11069 with the help of 31 centuries and 55 half-centuries. Kohli currently has 8587 runs studded with 30 hundreds and 44 half-centuries at a staggering average of 55.75. Kohli, who thrives chasing big totals, also became the first batsman to breach the 1000-run mark in 2017 during his 110 not out off 116 balls. The right-handed bat has been at his sublime best this year, with 1017 runs, four hundreds and six fifties at 92.45. Interestingly, all his hundreds this year has come while batting in the second innings. This is not all from the magician. He continued his form in T20 internationals as well. The India skipper was again at his sublime best to guide his team to a seven-wicket victory in the one-off Twenty20 match at R Premadasa Stadium. Kohli steadied the ship by beginning cautiously after India lost openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul cheaply while chasing 171 runs for victory. But in no time he took control of things and started playing his shots all around the park. Virat Kohli, who won the man-of the-match award for his magnificent 82, was thrilled at the outcome of the series. He was especially proud of the fact that the visitors had gone on to record nine wins in a row across the three formats of the game. Virat Kohli celebrated his milestone 50th T20 international by reaching 15,000 international runs in just 304 matches and becoming the fastest to do so. Kohli became the 33rd player to reach 15,000 runs and the only one with an average of above 50. Coming off in just 333 innings, the Delhi dasher edged past South African batsman Hashim Amla (336) to become the fastest to reach the milestone. Third on the list is Viv Richards (344) and then Mathew Hayden (347). The Indian team thus returned home with a satisfying 9-0 record winning all in this island nation.
There is no stopping for him with records coming thick and fast, making him a case study for upcoming generation. Without any doubt, he is mega rich but the seriousness which he puts in his game, is extraordinary. He is living and eating cricket, which is not an easy thing to do. There are times when one gets lazy or is in a mood to relax, skipping daily routine. But Virat Kohli is different. His work ethics are most important for him, putting other stuff in the waiting list. He is always ready for practice, gym sessions and other day to day work required to keep him fit and in shape. It is not easy to bat in Sri Lanka, forget about taking singles and doubles, considering the amount of humidity in the rainbow nation. But when it comes to Virat Kohli, he has the habit of defying already set benchmarks. When his batting partners were running out of energy, Virat Kohli was looking fresh and charged up. This is where he is different from every other cricketer. He doesn’t look out for easy way outs, often going for the best even if it is the toughest. If there is a perfect role model in international cricket, he is none other than Virat Kohli, a man who is born to rule world cricket.