It was on 18th August 2008, when the current Indian captain Virat Kohli made his international debut in the 50-over format.
It has been 12 years since he made his debut. A 19-year Kohli played his first ODI against Sri Lanka at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in Dambulla in 2008. However, it was nowhere near to the kind of start one wishes for their career as the debutant batsman could manage to score only 12 runs.
The right-handed batsman had opened the batting for the home-side, facing 22 balls and batted for 33 minutes at the crease, which marked the beginning of a glorious chapter in Indian Cricket.
He could contribute only one boundary but was sent back to the pavilion by Nuwan Kulasekara.
The match was not only disappointing from his side but the Indian team as a whole. Thanks to the Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan, the Indian cricket team succumbed to their fiery bowling and could not cross the scorecard of 146 runs, facing defeat.
But little did he know that this defeat was just laying the foundation for a career unparalled with any other and which would go down to be one of the most illustrious careers in the history of cricket.
It took him 14 matches to finally register his first international century in the Eden Gardens Stadium, Kolkata.
Thus far, Kohli has recorded 43 centuries in ODI cricket and has reputed his image as one of the finest run-chasers in the antiquity of cricket.
Up until now, the 31-year-old has played 248 ODIs, in which he has notched up 11,867 runs at an average of 59.33 with his maximum score being 183 against Pakistan.
In the list for most hundreds in ODI cricket, Kohli is in second place, only behind Sachin Tendulkar to achieve this milestone.
Virat is at the top spot in ODI rankings and is at the second spot in the Test rankings. The right-handed batsman has to date played 86 Tests, scoring 7,240 runs at an average of 53.62, with 27 centuries.
His knock of 254 at Pune against South Africa in 2019 remains his highest Test score to date.
The assessments amongst Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar keep on mounting and many have chosen the current Indian skipper to break the archives set by Tendulkar. Although, there are stills monumental records made by Tendulkar which is still a dream for the current Indian skipper to break. But given his fitness and form, he seems very much capable of doing so. However, his responsibility as a captain renders certain limitations and makes it rather unlikely for him to break these records.
Drawing a comparison between their records, Tendulkar has 100 international centuries under his belt, while Kohli currently has 70 centuries across all formats.
Virat Kohli has been quite instrumental in a lot of important victories of the team. He was part of the Indian team which lifted the World Cup. In 2017, Virat Kohli became the captain of the Indian team across all three formats. He has since led India to famous victories at home and abroad -the most significant one coming against Australia in the Test series Down Under, where his side became the first from Asia to defeat the Australians at their home soil.
He is yet to lift an ICC trophy as a captain. In the 2017 Champions Trophy, India lost in the final to Pakistan while in the 2019 World Cup, India, despite a terrific show in the group stages, lost to New Zealand narrowly in the semis.
Kohli would next be seen performing for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL), which is set to commence from 19th September in the UAE.
