Top 10 innings of Virat Kohli in international cricket

Virat Kohli has more than 25,000 international runs, but those 35 runs in the 2011 World Cup are the most important runs of his whole career. Imagine walking out to bat as a 22-year-old kid with a score of 31-2 chasing 275 in a World Cup final.

That Virat Kohli partnership with Gambhir was so crucial for Dhoni to come in later and do what Dhoni did.

• After Shikhar Dhawan played a good knock of 48, a succession of wickets started to go down, with Virat Kohli strangled at the non-striker end. The 43-run inning in the 2013 Champions Trophy and the partnership with Jadeja were the reasons why India was able to put some total to bowl at.

• Ones in a generation inning of 82 in the 2022 T20 World Cup against Pakistan

• Twice in a generation, another 82 against Australia in the 2016 T20 World Cup. It was a knockout game for both teams.

• The announcement innings, where he announced he is the Man for the next decade and more for India. The Hobart inning of 133 of 86 balls against Sri Lanka, 2012

• One month after the announcement at Hobart, he scored a very special 183 against our arch rivals Pakistan while chasing a target of 330.

• The 49 in the 2016 Asia Cup against Pakistan is by far my favorite knock of Kohli. The Pitch was as bad as it can get, India were 8-3 chasing a target of 84, with Pakistani bowlers literally doing everything a ball can do. Kohli unfortunately missed a half-century but that knock was one to remember.

• Kohli had a very bad start to his Test career. But as always throughout his career, it’s always Australia when something special needs to be done by him. The maiden Test century at Adelaide, when all the wickets kept falling, he was the only guy taking on the Australians.

• Kohli’s Edgbaston century, 149 to be precise, in the first test match of the series in 2018 after the disaster of the 2014 series was just a statement for everyone to witness.

• The 160 of 159 balls in Cape town, against a good South African pace attack and pitch, was a testimony to his fitness, which propelled India to 303 and at the end India won the match too, comfortably.

Kohli celebrated his 35th birthday by scoring his 49th century, which brought him level with Tendulkar, in the match against South Africa earlier this month.

Kohli reached his 50th ODI hundred in his 279th match, while Tendulkar required 452 to reach 49 centuries.