Virat Kohli completed 14,000 runs in ODI cricket and made his 51st century in the format.
Virat Kohli was the star performer for the Indian team, as they defeated Pakistan in their ICC Champions Trophy 2025 match in Dubai on February 23. Pakistan was bulldozed by the Men in Blue with both the ball and the bat.
Batting first after winning the toss, Pakistan managed 241 runs with Saud Shakeel scoring a fifty. Mohammad Rizwan made 46 and Khushdil Shah made 38 runs, as Kuldeep Yadav took 3 wickets and Hardik Pandya took 2 scalps for India.
While Rohit Sharma got out for 20 runs early, Shubman Gill (46) and Shreyas Iyer (56) played aggressive roles in partnership with Virat Kohli. Kohli anchored the chase, making 100* in 111 balls with 7 fours to his name, as India won by 6 wickets in hand.
Virat Kohli shared his thoughts on playing against Pakistan.
"The occasion is a bit more lively when you play against Pakistan, especially in this region because you have an equal number of fans from both countries, yeah, it was a great day for us as a team and for me personally as well," Kohli said in a video shared by BCCI.
Speaking openly about his match-winning 82nd international century against Pakistan, India's batting genius Virat Kohli stated that his favorite cover drive shot puts him in a "catch 22" situation because it has been his weakness recently, but he has also scored a lot of runs using it.
"It's a 'catch-22'. I mean, it's kind of been my weakness as well over the years, but I've scored a lot of runs on that shot. I think today was just about backing my shots and I think the first couple of boundaries I got were cover drives on the rise, so I really had to just let it go a little bit and take a bit of risk and follow through with my shots, because when I hit that kind of shots, then I feel in control when I bat out there, so it was a good innings for me personally and it was a great team win," Kohli stated.
Later in the video, the experienced cricketer discussed batting at number three, noting that his primary goal is always to put his team ahead of the opposition.
"One thing that I've always thought of batting at three is to minimize risk and make sure that I put my team in a winning position and if you have a chance to finish off the game in a chase, obviously, that's much better and I always preferred that kind of a situation, but yeah, my role over the years has remained the same, whatever the demand of the game, I put my head down and try to do that," the 36-year-old former captain added.
Here is the video: