NEW DELHI: Ever since his international cricket debut in 2008, star India batter Virat Kohli has made a name for himself as one of the greatest, if not the greatest all-format batter the game has ever seen.
Be it his classy stroke play, aggression on the field, fitness, ability to produce absolute clutch knocks under pressure or his mighty statistics, there is surely a lot to admire about Virat both from a player and personal point of view.
Fitness has played a big role in Kohli’s success. From days of being a chubby, fast-food, party-loving Virat, the batter has come a long way with his strict diet and fitness regimes. Virat’s love for food is well known and his willpower to control his eating habits for the sake of his match fitness has earned him a lot of acclaim and is well documented in interviews/media interactions.
This fitness has made him an amazing runner between the wickets, within the 22 yards of the pitch where the main action transpires. And some interesting statistics have come to the surface about his running between the wickets.
As per ESPNCricinfo, since his debut in 2008, Virat has smashed 25,582 runs in international cricket in 501 appearances. Out of these, 13,748 runs have been made by taking singles and converting them into twos and threes. He has run a total distance of 276.57 kilometres between the wickets throughout his career.
Virat’s outstanding statistics as a runner get even more better when he is compared by his on-field partners during his innings.
Throughout his career, compared to Kohli, his on-field batting partners combined have scored 11,606 runs by running between the wickets and have covered a distance of 233.48 km combined.
The way that Virat beats the combined runs and distance covered by his on-field partners speaks a lot about his fitness, hunger for runs and eye for opportunities to find these runs. Very often, Virat has converted singles into doubles, doubles into threes within a blink of an eye and that makes it a sight to behold in world cricket.
Year by year, Kohli presented himself as the epitome of consistency across all formats, becoming the part of modern-day ‘Fab Four’ batting quartet along with Steve Smith from Australia, New Zealand’s Kane Williamson and England’s Joe Root.
Since 2011, Kohli has represented India in 111 Tests. After making his Test debut in 2011 against West Indies, he overcame the horrors of his first tour, in which he could score just 76 runs in five innings to establish himself as one of the biggest ambassadors of red-ball cricket. He has scored 8,676 runs at an average of 49.29 in 187 innings, with 29 centuries and 29 fifties and the best score of 254*.
He is the fifth-highest scorer in Test cricket for India and 23rd overall, chasing the all-time tally of Indian great Sachin Tendulkar (15,921 runs in 200 matches and 51 centuries). He also has the fourth-highest centuries in Tests among Indians. Virat also has seven double hundreds, the most by an Indian player.
Virat’s strongest format is ODIs. In 275 ODIs, he has scored 12,898 runs at an average of 57.32. He has scored 46 centuries and 65 half-centuries in 265 innings, with the best score of 183.
He is India’s second-highest ODI run-getter behind Sachin (18,426 runs in 463 matches with 49 centuries) and overall fifth. Virat also has the second-highest number of ODI centuries and is chasing a half-century of ODI tons.
In an age where the T20 format values attacking batting, Virat has perfectly mixed conservatism and situation-based attacking to become a T20I giant as well. In 115 T20Is, he has scored 4,008 runs at an average of 52.73 and a strike rate of 137.96. He has scored one century and 37 half-centuries, with the best score of 122*.
He has the highest amount of runs, fifty-plus scores and average in T20I cricket history. Virat also has the most ‘Man of the Match’ (15) and ‘Man of the Series’ (seven) awards in T20Is.
He is part of the team which won the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, reached the semifinals of the 2015 and 2019 Cricket World Cups and final of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. (ANI)