Virat Kohli- end of an era? Will the star batsman be able to bounce back and rule the game once again?

Virat Kohli is considered as one of the best batsman across all the formats. Since making his debut in 2008 he has been smashing records and has established his image as one of the finest run chase master in the history of cricket.

The former Indian skipper has played 262 ODIs so far and has scored 12, 377 runs at an average of 57.7 with his highest score in ODI being 183 runs againt Pakistan in Dhaka.

Considered as run-machine Virat Kohli is the only player who is behind legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar in the list for most hundreds in ODI cricket. Sachin has 49 hundreds under his belt while Kohli is just 6 behind with 43 ODI tons till now.

2008- Beginning of Virat Kohli

After leading his side to victory in Under-19 Cricket World Cup Virat Kohli made his international debut in 2008 against Sri Lanka. ALthough, it wasn't a dream start tohis career as he was only able to score 12 runs in that match.

In the initial phase, Kohli just played 5 matches with 54 runs being the highest. 2009 was the year when he scored his maiden century (107) against Sri Lanka in Kolkata. Laterhe followed that up with three centuries in 2010, one against Bangladesh and two succesive ones later in the year against Australia Followed by New Zealand all three coming in ODI cricket.

2011- The rise of Virat Kohli

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2011 was not just special for Virat Kohli but also for the Indian fans as we won the World Cup after a long wait of 28 years. With many senior players retiring the pressure to carry forward the batting line up was a tough task and it was the time when Kohli stepped in.

Kohli scored four ODI centuries in that year recording his maiden century outside the sub-continent in Cardiff against England. Against England he scored another one while the other two came against Bangladesh in World Cup and West Indies in Vizag.

Kohli was slowly becoming a beast while chasing big targets and scoring back to back centuries. In 2012, he scored 8 centuries including his maiden test ton against Australia. In the same year he scored two centuries against New Zealand and England respectively. He also recorded his highest ODI score of 183 against Pakistan in 2012.

In 2013 Kohli scored six centuries including ODI tons in Zimbabwe and West Indies and two test tons against South Africa and Australia respectively.

Kohli the 'Run-Machine'

Virat kohli scored 19 centuries in the period between 2014 and 2016 becoming recognised as world's best batsman across all formats.

He scored three tons against Australia in 2014- 115, 141 and 169.

In 2015, he resumed his streak with a fourth century in the Australian series at Sydney. Then came a World Cup century against Pakistan. A Test century against Sri Lanka in Galle and an ODI century against the Proteas at home capped off a fantastic 2015.

King Kohli

In year 2017 and 2018, Kohli recorded 22 centuries to his name inlcuding 10 in Tests alone. He scored back to back double centuries against Sri Lanka in 2017 followed by 2 ODI and 2 Tests ton.

In 2018, he scored 3 ODI centuries against South Africa and a test century at Centurion. In the same year he hit a hat-trick of ODI tons against the Windies.

The Downfall

Kohli started 2019 with a match winning ODI ton agaisnt Australia. He scored five consecutive five half centuries in the World Cup but failed to convert any of them into big ones following the exit of Indian team from the tournament after getting defeated by New Zealand in the semifinal. This was MS Dhoni's last world cup as the later announced his retirement from cricket on 15 August, 2020.

In the year 2020 cricket got hit by Covid pandemic as every country announced complete lockdown. By the end of the year cricket slowly got back on the track but this time it was completely different with teams playing and traveling in bio-secure bubbles.

In 2021, Kohli's form slowly started to decline with not getting even a single century. Even he was struggling to score half centuries. 

In the calender year 2021, Kohli just scored 964 runs in 30 innings with an average of just 37.07 aross all formats.

He even gave T20I captaincy after a horrible T20 World Cup campaign where India failed to qualify for the semis. Kohli also booked a record to his name which no Indian Captain would ever want to. india got badly defeated by Pakistan in the opening match by 10 wickets first time in the history after maintaining a record of 12-0 till that match. 

Following this his downfall continued with Test and ODI series defeat against South Africa. He also gave captaincy from ODI cricket citing that he wants to focus on his batting now and contribute to the team in victory. But he never got back to his form. 

Even in the IPL 2022 edition he failed to score runs and got out in single digits many times. He was not captaining the franchise also.

End of an Era?

Kohli has taken a break from cricket for sometime. He took rest from the ongoing series against West Indies, he will also not play against Zimbabwe for three match ODI series scheduled August 18.

As another edition of T20 World Cup is just round the corner everyone is wishing that the star batsman will soon return back to his form and will once again rule the game. However, Kohli's current form is a big concern not only for the selectore or the team but also for his fans as he has given his fans some great knocks which will go down in history as some of the greatest knocks in cricket.

As for the question of legacy, however, Virat’s has set his bar so high that these stats won't deny the fact that he is one of the greatest player India has ever produced.