Indian captain Virat Kohli, who is one of the greatest batsmen in international cricket history, recently revealed his favourite matches in the international career.
Virat Kohli first time came to the limelight after leading the India U19 team to win the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2008. Later, in that year, Kohli made his international debut. Slowly but steadily, Kohli set his place in the national team in every format, and he has gradually evolved as one of the most consistent batsmen in every format of international cricket.
Kohli has played 86 Tests, 248 ODIs and 82 T20Is, where the right-handed batsman has scored 7240 runs (average 53.62), 11867 runs (average 59.33) and 2794 runs (average 50.80). Apart from scoring the most runs in T20I cricket history, Kohli has also hit 70 international centuries (third-most international centuries). Even after becoming captain, Kohli has shown a great consistent improvement in batting.
Talking about his favourite matches in the international career, Kohli picked up the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and the quarter-final of the ICC World T20 2016, where India won both those matches.
Kohli said on a Star Sports show, “Apart from the 2011 finals, my other favourite match from the atmosphere and importance of the game point of view would be the 2016 T20 quarterfinal against Australia in Mohali.”
Virat Kohli played crucial roles in both those matches
Coming to bat in the important early period of the 275-run chasing during the final of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 against Sri Lanka at Mumbai, Kohli put a crucial 83-run partnership with Gautam Gambhir for the third wicket. His 35 runs off 49 balls helped the Indian team to set up the strong base for that challenging chasing, where India won that match by six wickets, thanks to Gautam Gambhir (97) and MS Dhoni (91*).
On the other hand, during the quarter-final of the ICC World T20 2016 against Australia at Mohali, Kohli got the major responsibility in the chase of 161 runs as the Indian team was once struggling on 49/3. While the other Indian batsmen struggled in that chasing, Kohli almost single-handedly guided the team to the six-wicket victory after remaining not out on 82 runs off 51 balls.