This day, August 18 in 2008, a young Delhi boy, fresh off a U19 World Cup win, made his debut for India, and today in 2020, everyone is celebrating 12 years of Virat Kohli in order to honor what has been a phenomenal career of the current Indian captain.
The occasion was the first One-Day International (ODI) against Sri Lanka on the tour of 2008 and Virat was picked as an opener alongside Gautam Gambhir, his Delhi teammate. Though Kohli managed just 12 runs in his first international outing, he gave glimpses of what was in store for the future.
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The BCCI posted a tweet to celebrate Virat Kohli completing 12 years in international cricket. “On this day in 2008, a young @imVkohli donned the #TeamIndia jersey for the first time and as they say the rest is history. Here's congratulating #TeamIndia Captain on #12YearsOfVirat” the tweet read.
Apart from the BCCI, Virat Kohli’s IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) also posted a tweet congratulating their skipper on completing 12 years of international cricket. RCB had invested in Kohli during the 2008 IPL U19 players’ draft and handed him the captaincy in 2013 and the Delhiite has become a lifelong RCB player, revered by their fans over the years.
“#OnThisDay in 2020, @imVkohli began his journey in International cricket, making his debut for India against Sri Lanka. From an ambitious young cricketer to one of the best batsmen the game has ever seen, it’s been one incredible journey!” RCB’s tweet said.
In the past 12 years, Kohli has crossed several milestones. He was part of India's World Cup-winning team in 2011, the Champions Trophy-winning team in 2013, and the team that climbed to the No.1 spot in the ICC Test Rankings.
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He is second on the list of highest scorers for India on ODIs with 11,867 runs, only behind his mentor Sachin Tendulkar's 18,426, and has scored 70 international centuries behind Tendulkar's 100. He is the fastest to reach 10,000 runs ODIs.
Kohli succeeded MS Dhoni as Test captain in 2015 and limited-overs captain in 2017. Currently, he has 7,240 Test runs to his name and holds the record for the most double hundreds (7) among Indian batsmen in Tests.
