Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli: biography

Virat Kohli is a famous sportsman with a prosperous career. Virat is known for his aggressive playing style. Currently, the cricketer is the captain of the India national team. Kohli is one of the richest sportsmen nowadays, who also does a lot of charity work.

Childhood and youth

The sportsman is from Delhi. Virat is very thankful to his father, who was his best friend. Unfortunately, his father died in 2006, and Virat suffered a great loss. After losing his father at a young age, Virat had to become more self-dependent. His mother was a housewife, and he knew he had to support her and the whole family. Virat is not the only child: he has an older brother and an older sister.

According to his family members, when he was three years old, Kohli would pick up a cricket bat, start swinging it and ask his father to bowl at him.

Virat got his education at Vishal Bharti Public School. After studying at school, he started to train at the Academy. Rajkumar Sharma was his trainer, and he described Virat as a very active kid. According to the teachers at school, Virat was a brilliant student, too.

Youth and domestic cricket career

After performing in Polly Umrigar Trophy tournament, Virat became the leading run-getter for his team. In 2006, the sportsman debuted at List A for Delhi against Services. In the summer of the same year, the player joined the India Under-19 squad on tour to England. Virat impressed the coach of the team after showing strong technical skills against both pace and spin. In November, he made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu at the age of 18.

After the period of triumphant moments, he became more famous after performing in his team against Karnataka. For Virat, it was a very special day: the day after his father's death. He managed to show his best skills during the match. According to his mother, that day changed him drastically. It seemed that Virat became a much more matured person. After the Under-19 World Cup, the player signed a contract with the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore.

International career

Virat became a part of the Indian ODI squad for the tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in August 2008. He made his international debut at the age of 19.

In 2009, the player replaced the injured Shikhar Dhawan in the India A squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A. In October, he successfully performed for Indian Board President's XI in a four-day tour match against Australia. The year 2009 was the best at the start of his career.

In 2010, Raina Suresh was named a captain and Kohli vice-captain for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. Virat became India's leading run-getter in the five-match ODI series of the South African tour in January 2011. Kohli and Raina, leaders in the World Cup, managed to show fantastic results. However, the two competed for the best place. Before India's first match of the tournament, Indian captain Dhoni said that Virat had demonstrated better results.

There was a ridiculous situation when Virat gestured to the crowd with his middle finger. He was fined 50% of his match fee after doing this.

In 2012, the player was appointed the vice-captain for the Asia Cup in Bangladesh. He was in fine form during the tournament and was awarded the man of the match in both matches that India won.

Kohli has demonstrated excellent performances and very high stats in games. He became the fastest batsman in the world to score 17 hundreds in ODI cricket. At the conclusion of the series of matches, Virat was in the top position in the ICC ODI batsmen rankings.

After India traveled to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup and World Twenty20, Kohli was named the captain for the tournament. When Dhoni returned from injury to captain the team for 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and Kohli was named vice-captain.

Virat was lucky to captain in an ICC tournament for the first time in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. During the ODI series against West Indies in 2018, Kohli became the 12th batsman and fastest player. In December, by winning the test series in Australia, he had become the first Indian and also the first Asian skipper to win a test series in Australia.

In April 2019, Virat was named the captain of India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. In October 2019, he captained India for the 50th time in Test cricket. In November 2019, during the Test match against Bangladesh, the player became the fastest captain.

Playing style

Virat's most known characteristic is an aggressive style of playing. He often behaves as an aggressive batsman on the field. At the same time, Virat has strong technical skills. As a player, he is called the best limited-overs batsmen in the world.

The player is often compared to the sportsman Sachin Tendulkar. Many people say that they have similar styles of batting. Virat told his fans that in his childhood Tendulkar was his idol. At a young age, Virat tried to copy his style of playing.

The sportsman sometimes had confrontations with players. Some critics thought that this behavior is inappropriate. Virat has analyzed how he behaved in the field and promised to be calmer. However, he admitted that it is difficult for him to restrain his emotions sometimes.

Personal life

Virat is a married man. He met his future wife in 2013. Anushka Sharma, it's her name, is an actress. The duo is known to have a nickname "Virushka," which combines their names. Virat and Anushka married in 2017. Their wedding was held as a private ceremony in Florence, Italy.

Virat is one of the fittest cricketers in the game today – but he’s not always been so athletic and he owes his weight loss to a strict diet. Among the latest news, there is a story that Kohli turned vegan four months ago and does not eat meat, egg or dairy products anymore. He says he was dreaming about it and now he started sticking to a new diet. Speaking about sports, Virat invested near £10 million to start a chain of gym and fitness centers across the country.

He is also known to be very active in charity work. He says that he loves to be an inspiration for kids to achieve big goals in lives. He has a charity foundation named ‘Virat Kohli Foundation’ which raises funds and helps children.

The sportsman is famous all over the world for his beard style. Many men take an example from him, copying his look. In summer 2019, he trimmed his beard in a mall to share some grooming secrets with men.

On his Twitter, the sportsman has over 35 million followers. He is also very famous on Instagram, where he has over 4 million fans supporting him. In 2018, Virat posted the first look poster on his Instagram, which had the Indian cricketing sensation sporting a stylish look. It looked like it would be an interesting short movie, with the title 'Trailer'. This post left his fans confused and eventually appeared to be just a joke.

His net worth is estimated at about $60 million. His money has a lot to do with the endorsement he does for a number of brands. The cricketer charges almost a $1 million for per day shoot putting him in a league of worldwide stars. An average annual income of a sportsman equals $16 million.

Awards and honors

• Arjuna Award, 2013
• Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award, 2017
• Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, 2018
• Barmy Army - International Player of Year: 2017, 2018
• Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2016, 2017, 2018