Follow UsA humbling beginning against the West Indies
As he walked back to the hut for a ten-ball four on his Test debut in Kingston against West Indies back in 2011, and as he averaged 15.20 in his first series in Tests, Virat Kohli might just have thought, ‘Do I belong here?’
Maybe not the best of introductions to the Aussies, Kohli
How not to introduce yourself to the Aussies? Well, here’s a 101: showing your middle finger to them. Bad boy era.
When Australia got their first real taste of Virat
Among Kohli’s multiple nicknames, the best of them is: Australian tormentor. It all began in 2012 when Kohli scored an assured 116 in Adelaide, kick-starting his domination in the city. The best part? This ton succeeded the image directly above. Little did the Aussies know what they were dealing with!
Only miss the runs when you start to fail: an English saga
Staring at the bottom of your glass
Hoping one day you'll make a dream last
But dreams come slow, and they go so fast
Kohli’s brief but tormenting passage of play in English cricket is always going to be one of the defining points of his Test career. If not for that lull, maybe Test cricket would never have seen the beast that he became.
Virat Kohli: The Beginning (Down Under)
Bahubali Virat Kohli: The Beginning. It was really the beginning of a real new world domination, where every other batter could only aspire to be at Kohli’s level.
The unreal determination started in Australia, when he scored 692 runs in four matches, including a twin ton in Adelaide (His best-ever Test knock, eh?). This time around Kohli made his bat talk, and he figuratively showed the Australian crowd the ‘middle’.
As it would turn out, this tour, and the Adelaide Test in particular, would end up changing Indian cricket forever.
Captain Kohli, the first of many Test wins
New captain, new beginnings as Kohli notched up a first and a rare Test win for India in Sri Lanka. While he might have just scored one hundred and fifty, his aggressive captaincy started scaling Indian cricket to greater Test heights.
Maiden Double-century and a new personal high for Kohli
100 ✅
Multiple hundreds in Australia ✅
Series win in Sri Lanka ✅
Now what? Well, a 200 in the West Indies. How about that? Even the Antigua crowd knew what they witnessed as they bowed down to the King at the home of OG King (Sir Viv Richards).
2016 and two years of dominance that one can only imagine
Between Jan 1, 2016, to Dec 31, 2017, Virat Kohli amassed 2274 runs, averaging a staggering 75.8 in Test cricket, with 3 50s and 9 100s.
Kohli wasn’t just another cricketer; he was a literal beast, scoring a double century in four consecutive series (WI (A), NZ (H), ENG (H), BAN (H)). It was during this time that Kohli was at the absolute peak of his powers. In 2017, Kohli became the first and only cricketer to score 3+ double hundreds in two calendar years.
Lifelong memory of a comeback home win vs Australia
At 0-1, Australia thought they were going away from India with a Test series win. Not under Kohli’s watch, and not on the Indian home soil, as India’s No.18 rallied his team to perhaps one of the most famous comeback wins for the country on home soil.
Kohli was not there for the finishing touches in Dharamshala, but the victory in Bengaluru stands tall as one of India's great wins this century, and arguably among Kohli's top three wins as Test skipper.
A win in South Africa in hostile conditions
'Home bullies, SENA no-shows' was what India were being branded, until the South Africa tour came about in 2017/18. They would go on to lose the first two Tests and thus the series, but would register a defining 63-run victory in Johannesburg that would end up signalling the sign of things to come.
India were no longer there to just make up the numbers in SENA. They were out there to compete, and win.
King’s comeback? Nah, King marches to his throne
Everyone remembers the downfall, but how about the comeback? After all the trolls of ‘You can’t handle James Anderson’, King Kohli decided to put England in their place with a 593-run series in England in 2018. 'Sit down, Anderson, be humble' said Kohli's bat as he crafted his Magnum Opus at the very place where he sunk to his lowest in 2014.
Captain Kohli and a new high in Australia
Kohli might not have had the best of the series with the bat, but Kohli the captain wasn’t just destined for greatness, he was GREATNESS! What came before and what would come after didn't matter one bit as Kohli immortalised himself as India's greatest ever Test skipper by winning a series in Australia.
That the series win came on the back of the fast-bowling battery he had clamoured for and built was the icing on the top of the cake.
254* and a personal new high score unlocked
254* - Kohli unlocks a new high score.
Not just that, it was Kohli’s seventh double hundred in Test cricket, the most for an Indian. One could argue it came on a pretty flat pitch against an ordinary, mentally checked-out South African attack, but posting 250 is no mean feat.
The lowest of lows in New Zealand just before COVID
Right around when the world was getting into a lockdown, Kohli’s form too went into a lockdown, as the right-handed batter could only score 38 runs in the entire series, averaging 9.50. Little did the world know that this series was going to be a pretty big foreshadowing of what was about to come in the next 5 years.
Don’t worry, Kohli, the captain still got it - leading India to the first WTC final
Kohli the batter might have had a slump, but not Kohli the skipper.
Kohli, the captain, was still a beast as he led India to the final of the first-ever World Test Championship (WTC). But the result in the final? Another heartbreak for India in an ICC tournament.
Kohli steps down as captain!
Years of dominating teams as a Test captain, Kohli shocked the entire world by resigning from captaincy in the aftermath of the South Africa Test series. It was one of the many shocks that he had up his sleeves as it meant India had to find a skipper who could fill massive shoes.
Hopes of a second wind after a brutal all-time low
Before hopes of a second wind emerged in 2023, Kohli went through a brutal all-time low, a phase where not just everyone questioned Kohli's numbers but also went one step further, saying that he should be gone.
During this phase (Jan 2020 - Feb 2023), Kohli only scored 917 runs across 20 Tests, averaging 26.2, with just six half-centuries and a century drought that no one saw coming. But then came the turnaround.
A hundred against Australia. A hundred away in the West Indies. A 76 in South Africa on a very tough pitch in which he was the lone warrior for the side. Kohli ended 2023 with an average of 55.91, and there was well and truly hope that a second peak was inevitable. Especially considering he had arguably the greatest World Cup campaign of all time.
King is back, back again, tell a friend!
A 100, a hope that eventually turned into retirement
When Kohli smashed that 100 in the second innings of that Perth Test, it seemed like he was 'back' and was going to yet again dominate the mighty Aussies in their backyard.
But over the next four Tests, as fate would have it, the same old Kohli nemesis - the outside edge - reappeared. 90 runs in the next four Tests, and suddenly, Kohli’s Test career went off the rails, with him getting humiliated by the Australian speedsters game in and game out.
The final dance was ultimately a fall, as ironically, a Kohli-led India fell flat on their face in Sydney. In a way, it was poetic tragedy, as Kohli's Test career ended at the very same country in which he scaled the greatest of heights.