Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli (born 5 November 1988 in New Delhi) is a former captain of the Indian national cricket team across all formats. He bats right-handed and bowls occasional right-arm medium pace. Widely regarded as one of the finest batters in limited-overs cricket, he holds the record for the most centuries in One Day Internationals and the second-most international centuries overall, with 85 tons. He is also the all-time leading run-scorer in the Indian Premier League, where he plays for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. In domestic cricket, he represents Delhi.

Kohli captained the Indian team that won the 2008 Under-19 World Cup and was a key member of the senior sides that claimed the 2011 Cricket World Cup, the 2013 Champions Trophy, the 2024 T20 World Cup, and the 2025 Champions Trophy. He topped the ICC ODI batting rankings in 2013, the T20I rankings in 2015, and the Test rankings in 2018—making him the only Indian to hold the number-one spot in all three formats. He was the first player to reach 20,000 international runs in a single decade and was named the ICC Cricketer of the Decade for 2011–2020.

With ten ICC Awards, Kohli is the most decorated player in international cricket history. He won the ODI Player of the Year award four times (2012, 2017, 2018, 2023) and the Cricketer of the Year award twice (2017, 2018). In 2018, he became the first player to win all three major ICC awards—Cricketer of the Year, ODI Player of the Year, and Test Player of the Year—in the same year. He received the Spirit of Cricket Award in 2019, and in 2020 he was named both Cricketer of the Decade and ODI Cricketer of the Decade. Wisden named him the Leading Cricketer in the World for three consecutive years.

Kohli has won the most Player of the Series awards and the second-most Player of the Match awards across all formats. He received the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri in 2017, and India’s highest sporting honor, the Khel Ratna Award, in 2018. Time magazine included him on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2018. He is considered one of the most commercially valuable athletes, with estimated earnings of ₹ in 2022.

After winning the 2024 T20 World Cup and being named Player of the Match in the final, Kohli retired from T20Is. On 12 May 2025, at age 36, he announced his retirement from Test cricket. He is married to actress Anushka Sharma, and they have two children.

Kohli was raised in a Punjabi Hindu family in New Delhi. His mother Saroj is a homemaker; his father Prem Nath was a criminal lawyer. He has an elder brother, Vikas, and an elder sister, Bhawna. He spent his early years in Uttam Nagar and attended Vishal Bharti Public School. According to his family, he showed a strong interest in cricket from age three, often asking his father to bowl to him. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was established, and in May of that year, his father arranged for him to meet coach Rajkumar Sharma. Following neighbors’ advice, his father enrolled him in a professional cricket academy, believing his talent deserved more than street cricket.

Kohli initially failed to make the Delhi Under-14 team due to factors outside his control. His father reportedly received offers to place him with influential clubs to guarantee selection but declined. Kohli eventually joined the Under-15 team, training at the academy and playing matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy in Vasundhara Enclave. To focus on cricket, he transferred to Saviour Convent School in ninth grade. His father died of a cerebral attack on 18 December 2006. His mother later noted that Kohli’s attitude changed markedly after the loss; he became more serious about cricket, dedicating himself fully to the sport. The family lived in Meera Bagh, Paschim Vihar until 2015, then moved to Gurgaon.

Kohli’s junior domestic career began in October 2002 at the Luhnu Cricket Ground against Himachal Pradesh. He scored his first half-century—70 runs—at Feroze Shah Kotla against Haryana. That season, he finished as his team’s top run-scorer with 172 runs at an average of 34.40. In the 2003–04 Polly Umrigar Trophy, he captained the Under-15 team, scoring 54 in a win over Himachal Pradesh and his maiden century (119) against Jammu and Kashmir.

He ended the season with 390 runs at an average of 78, including two centuries. In late 2004, he was selected for the Delhi Under-17 team in the Vijay Merchant Trophy, scoring 470 runs in four matches, with a highest of 251 not out. Coach Ajit Chaudhary praised his temperament. The 2005–06 season began with 227 against Punjab.

After Delhi beat Uttar Pradesh in the quarter-finals, Kohli promised his coach he would finish the job in the semi-final against Baroda, scoring 228 to lead his team to victory. Delhi won the final against Mumbai, with Kohli contributing a half-century in the first innings. He finished as the tournament’s top scorer with 757 runs from seven matches, averaging 84.11. On 18 February 2006, he made his List A debut.