Star India batter Virat Kohli is undoubtedly one of the greatest players in the world. Ever since his debut in 2008, Kohli has taken Indian cricket to different heights with his powerful batting and also broke numerous records. Despite retiring from the T20Is, Kohli is en-route to break legendary Sachin Tendulkar‘s record of scoring hundred centuries in his international cricket. Apart from Team India, Kohli has immensely contributed for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL. Kohli joined RCB in the inaugural IPL season in 2008 and has been a part of the franchise ever since.

Despite playing an amazing brand of cricket, RCB are yet to lift an IPL trophy. However, RCB is one of the biggest IPL franchises with a large fan base.

Recently, Kohli was asked to chose his favorite rival between five-time champions Mumbai Indians and three-time winners Kolkata Knight Riders. Kohli opted for KKR as his favorite rivals in IPL.

Earlier on Sunday, Kohli completed 16 years of playing international cricket. In 2008, Kohli made his international cricket debut in India’s ODI against Sri Lanka at Dambulla, a couple of months after he became the Under-19 World Cup-winning captain at Kuala Lumpur.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), BCCI secretary Jay Shah congratulated the talismanic batter and wrote, “16 years ago today, a 19-year-old @imVkohli stepped onto the international stage for the first time, marking the beginning of what has become a truly legendary career. Congratulations to the King on completing 16 years in international cricket!”

In his debut international game, Kohli opened the batting with current India head coach Gautam Gambhir and made just 12 runs. He ended his maiden international series with 159 runs in five matches at an average of 31.80.

Since then, Kohli has emerged as a formidable batting force for India, amassing 13,906 runs in 295 ODIs and also holds the record for most centuries by a male batter in the format – 50 centuries, 27 of which have come in run-chases. He has also amassed 8,848 runs in 113 Test matches and made 4,188 runs in 125 T20Is.

(With IANS Inputs)