An ancient co-curricular part of human society that has given immense source of recreation and cheerful memory. It’s not only a source of passing the leisure time, but also a source to maintain physical health, increase endurance, enthusiasm and will power in youth. Different kinds of indoor and outdoor sports are being played throughout the world. Sports like cricket, football, hockey, baseball, basketball etc are famous outdoor sports while chess, badminton, kabbadi are considered as indoor games.
THE MIRACLE MAN of CRICKET
Considering the sports history of India, India is considered as origin of sports like kabbadi, kho-kho, malhakhamb etc. The Indian ancestry shown a sheer dominance in the field of hockey with 8 Olympic Gold Medals with a total of 11 medals. Later the turf hockey saw India’s downfall and meanwhile there is rise of another sport which attracted many men, women and youth population of India i.e Cricket. The 1983 World Cup victory at Lords by Kapil Dev laid a milestone which made the way for further great players to follow it. Indian Cricket is blessed with lots of superstars like Kapil Dev, Mohinder Amarnath, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, M.S. Dhoni, Rohit Sharma. The Man who fascinates everyone now a days is VIRAT KOHLI.
Famous Indian Captain
The famous Indian Captain was born on 5th November 1988 to Prem Kohli and Saroj Kohli in Delhi. His father was a criminal lawyer while his mother was a housewife. Virat has immense interest in cricket from childhood. He started playing the game at the age of 4 years. Kohli was a part of 1st batch of West Delhi Academy and received training under Rajkumar Sharma in the year 1998.
Kohli’s Work Profile
Kohli made his 1st Cricket Debut in October 2002 in Delhi under 15 team in Polly Umrigar Trophy. Later he was selected in the Delhi under-17 team for 2003-2004 Nijay Merchant Trophy where he finished as the highest run-scorer. At the age of 18, Kohli made his Class Debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu wherein he just scored 10 runs but his class and elegance attracted the spectators as well as the selectors and he made his debut for India’s Under 19 team in July 2006 during India’s tour to England. India won both ODI and Test Series there and Kohli emerged as the highest run scorer of the whole Tournament. Later in that year Kohli emerged as the highest run scorer of interstate T-20 Championship with a score of 179.
The Year 2008 was a Life changing year for Virat, the chubby teenager with aggressive attitude on field was given the role of captain for the Under-19 team. Virat Kohli shined with bat and ball and India got crowned with their 2nd Under-19 Trophy.
Richest League of Cricket
In the same year Richest League of Cricket begun and RCB signed him for 30 lakhs. Also the major breakthrough came as he replaced injured Gautam Gambhir in the National Squad and batted as opener. He was then called up for the champions trophy of 2009 where he replaced Yuvraj Singh. But soon this substitute player turned into a sensational teenager and started playing regularly for India. Kohli was a part of the historic team which won the ICC World Cup in 2011, with a century and a sensational innings in the final. Later he was announced as one of the best players of World Cricket.
Immense Dedication
Time passed and Kohli made his Test Cricket debut on 20th June 2011 but failed miserably. On the other hands he continued his magnificence in white ball cricket. The immense dedication and love for the nation made him overcome all these harsh periods. Some of his victory includes 183 against Pakistan, 133* at Howard and he was declared as the highest run scorer of 2012 and 2014 T-20 World Cup.
Full-time Captain of Indian Test Team
He was made the full-time captain of Indian Test Team along with it he became the 1st Indian to score a century against Pakistan in World Cup 2015. Year 2016 saw the most destructive pace of Virat Kohli, 1st he became the highest run scorer and later player of the tournament of 2016 T-20 World Cup and later scored 973 runs in IPL and proclaimed the orange cap for RCB which is still a record to beat.
Year 2017 saw Virat Kohli as Captain of all three formats. Though not with trophies but Virat Kohli led India to 2017 champion Final Trophy , 2019 ICC World Cup Semi Final and 2021 World Test Championship Final. In test Virat Kohli completely changed the scenario where Indian team climbed to Rank 1 from Rank 7 and won 5 test matches. The Border Gavaskar Trophy of 2018 was most memorable victory of Kohli. Kohli didn’t take the captainship pressure further as he remained as the highest scorer for the years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. He became the fastest to score 2000,4000,7000,8000 ODI runs of that time.
Time turned again as Virat Kohli faced the hard time of his career in 2020-2022. The majestic batsman remained stuck at his 70th century for 3 years, the team performance downgraded and he left the T-20 captainship after 2021 World Cup failure. Later he was sacked from ODI captainship and after the heart breaking 2-1 loss to South Africa test series, he left test captainship. The man who scored with an average of 60 throughout his career all to average 25. The media, senior cricketers and public thought probably it was an end of his magical career, but 2.0 version was yet to come.
Virat Kohli scored 71st century in Asia Cup 2022 and that scripted his epic comeback. In T-20 World Cup 2022 Kohli again topped the run tally with iconic finish against Pakistan by single handily chasing down the score. For his immense contribution to cricket Kohli has received many prestigious awards like Arjuna Award in 2013, Padmashri on 30th March 2017 and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in year 2018.
Hopefully the modern-day master and the magician batsman continues for more 5-6 years to add on some more glory and trophies for India.
By: Subhasmin Sarangi
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