Ahead of the T20 World Cup 2024, there was a question about Virat Kohli’s inclusion in the squad considering his form and age. But, the 35-year-old Indian batter proved that age is just a number for him by delivering a dynamic performance in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 (both batting and fielding skills). Even the young generation of cricketers find it difficult to match his stamina and skills.
In this season, Kohli became the orange cap winner and topped the run charts by scoring 741 runs in 15 innings.
Making his debut in 2008, Virat Kohli conquered his spot in all three formats of crickets namely the Tests, ODIs, and T20Is. In 15 years of his cricketing career, Kohli was hailed as the “King of Cricket”, since there is hardly any batter in the world who can inch closer to breaking his records and holds longevity of achievements.
Especially during 2014 to 2019, Virat Kohli was in his peak form. Despite a lot of struggles in the two-and-a-half years (between 2020 and 2022), and critics claiming that the King had lost his throne and the crown was slipping, Kohli bounced back as the upgraded 2.0 version. Also, he surpassed the lifetime records of the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar in recent times. Let’s delve deeper into the achievements, struggles, and comeback of Virat Kohli in detail…
Virat Kohli’s Peak Form: 2014 to 2019
Out of several achievements of Virat Kohli from 2014 to 2019, here are the few popular ones that made him earn the title “King of Cricket”:
1. Player of the Tournament in T20 World Cup 2014 and 2016:
Virat Kohli achieved the “Player of the Tournament” award in two consecutive editions of the and 2016:
- 2014 (Leading run scorer of the tournament): 319 runs in 6 innings (4 half-centuries)
- 2016 (Second Leading run scorer of the tournament): 273 runs in 5 innings (3 half-centuries
2. Orange Cap Winner in IPL 2016:
Virat Kohli scored 973 runs in 16 innings, which is the most by any player in a single IPL season to date, and he became the orange cap winner in the 2016 edition.
3. Above 2,000 International Runs in four consecutive years:
Starting from 2016 to 2019, Virat Kohli scored more than 2,000 runs in international cricket for four consecutive years and was in the peak form of his career:
| Year | Total Runs | Test Runs | ODI Runs | T20I Runs |
| 2016 | 2,595 | 1,215 runs in 18 innings (2 half-centuries and 4-centuries) | 739 runs in 10 innings (4 half-centuries and 3-centuries) | 641 runs in 13 innings (7 half centuries) |
| 2017 | 2,818 | 1,059 runs in 16 innings (1 half-century and 5-centuries) | 1,460 runs in 26 innings (7 half-centuries and 6-centuries) | 299 runs in 10 innings (2 half-centuries) |
| 2018 | 2,735 | 1,307 runs in 24 innings (5 half-centuries and 5-centuries) | 1,202 runs in 14 innings (3 half-centuries and 6-centuries) | 211 runs in 9 innings (1 half-century) |
| 2019 | 2,455 | 608 runs in 11 innings (2 half-centuries and 2-centuries) | 1,377 runs in 25 innings (7 half-centuries and 5-centuries) | 466 runs in 10 innings (5 half-centuries) |
At the end of 2019, Virat Kohli achieved 70 international centuries in his career (Test-27 and ODI-43) and leveled the record of former Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting’s record. As a result, Kohli recorded the second joint most number of centuries in international cricket. This was only possible since Virat Kohli scored the highest number of centuries in a single calendar of his cricketing career in these four years:
- 2016: 7 international centuries
- 2017: 11 international centuries
- 2018: 11 international centuries
- 2019: 7 international centuries
4. Most International Runs from 2016 to 2019:
Virat Kohli accumulated10,000-plus international runs from 2016 to 2019 and ranked at the leading position in this list as shown below:
- Virat Kohli (INDIA): 10,603 runs
- Joe Root (ENGLAND): 8,467 runs
- Rohit Sharma (INDIA): 7,388 runs
- Babar Azam (PAKISTAN): 6,241 runs
- David Warner (AUSTRALIA): 6,173 runs
Virat Kohli Struggling Form: 2020 to 2022
In these two and half years (2020-2022), Kohli wasn’t among the top 50 batters, and he faced one of the toughest times in his life as runs were difficult to come from his bat. In 75 innings, he couldn’t score a century and batted at a poor average of 34.
Even he stepped down as the Indian cricket team captain in all formats. At one stage, his inclusion in the playing XI was uncertain.
One common factor that never changed was Virat Kohli’s energetic performance on the field. Despite not being able to score runs with the bat, Kohli’s presence on the field was enough for the Indian cricket team to give a tough scare to the opposition.
Here is a detailed analysis of Virat Kohli’s runs in International cricket (in 2020 and 2021):
| Year | Total Runs | Test Runs | ODI Runs | T20I Runs |
| 2020 | 842 | 116 runs in 6 innings (1 half-century) | 431 runs in 9 innings (5 half-centuries) | 295 runs in 9 innings (1 half-century) |
| 2021 | 964 | 536 runs in 19 innings (4 half-centuries) | 129 runs in 3 innings (2 half-centuries) | 299 runs in 8 innings (4 half-centuries) |
From the above stats, it becomes clear that since 2010, this was the first time Virat Kohli scored below 1000 runs in international cricket for two consecutive years.
Virat Kohli 2.0 Records: From September 2022 to Till Date (June 2024)
Here are the comeback and records of the star batsman after a difficult period of three years in his career, marking the arrival of Virat Kohli 2.0 from September 2022 to June 2024 (till Date):
1. Maiden T20 Century:
Finally, on 8th September 2022, Virat Kohli made a massive comeback in the Asia Cup tournament and shut down the critics by scoring 122 runs from 61 balls (12 fours and 6 sixes) against Afghanistan. After a three-year century drought (1,021 days), Virat Kohli found his form by scoring a maiden T20I century. As a result, Virat Kohli surpassed Ricky Ponting’s record to become the second batter with the most number of international centuries (71 centuries at that time).
2. Most Centuries in ODIs:
On 15th November 2023, Virat Kohli surpassed Sachin Tendulkar’s record (49 ODI centuries) to achieve the most centuries by any batter in their ODI career. His 50th century was recorded in the ODI World Cup 2023 semi-final match against New Zealand.
Currently, Kohli with 80 centuries (Tests-29, ODI-50, and T20Is-1), ranks as the 2nd batter on the list after Sachin Tendulkar (100 centuries- 51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs) for most centuries in international cricket.
3. Player of the tournament in the 2023 World Cup:
Virat Kohli was the leading run scorer of the tournament scoring 765 runs in 11 innings (6 half centuries and 2 centuries) and was granted the “Player of the tournament” award.
4. Highest runs scored in single edition World Cup:
By Scoring 765 runs in 11 matches, Kohli surpassed Sachin’s exceptional record (673 runs in 11 matches) achieved in 2003 to become the highest run-scoring batter in a single edition of a World Cup.
5. IPL 2024 Orange Cap Winner:
Virat Kohli became the orange cap winner of IPL 2024 by scoring 741 runs in 15 innings.
6. 3,942 Runs from September 2022 to June 2024:
From September 2022 to June 2024 (till date), Kohli scored 3,942 runs in 59 innings and the stats are tabulated below:
| Year | Total Runs | Test Runs | ODI Runs | T20I Runs |
| After September 2022 | 1,807 | 45 runs in 4 innings | 127 runs in 3 innings (1-century) | 1,635 runs in 12 innings (5 half centuries and 1-century) |
| 2023 | 2,048 | 671 runs in 12 innings (2-half centuries and 2 centuries) | 1,377 runs in 24 innings (8-half centuries and 6 centuries) | Not Played |
| 2024 | 87 | 58 runs in 2 innings | Not Played | 29 runs in 2 innings |