Virat Kohli had led India to the Under-19 World Cup title in Kuala Lumpur in March 2008. Even during that campaign, it was obvious that this batsman was to go on to greater things, though no one would possibly have imagined that in a decade’s time, he would establish himself as the best all-format batsman of his generation.
His hunger for runs, driven by a pursuit of excellence, led Kohli to a significant lifestyle change in 2013 with fitness as his mantra. Physically in peak shape and therefore able to do special things for longer periods, Kohli set about taking bowling attacks to the cleaners in both red and white-ball play.
In limited-overs cricket, Kohli was particularly sensational in run-chases. Loving having a target in front of him, he would go methodically about his business of closing down the gap between runs and balls remaining, and would eventually get the job done with plenty to spare.
Such has been his dominance in run-chases that there is no such thing as a lost cause for India till he is out in the middle. It’s not as if he is less effective batting first either; on this day in 2018, Kohli breezed to an unbeaten 157 in just 129 deliveries in the second ODI in Visakhapatnam, pulling India to 321 for six.
Shai Hope, who himself finished not out on 123, struck the last ball of the match for four to help West Indies to 321 for seven and come away with a tie, but long before that, Kohli had become the fastest man to 10,000 ODI runs during his century in the afternoon. Kohli had taken 205 innings to get there, well ahead of Sachin Tendulkar who held the previous mark of 259 knocks. And Tendulkar, the maker of 49 ODI hundreds, was no slouch, in case it needs reiterating.
In the intervening two-year period, Kohli has not been resting on his laurels. He currently has 11,867 runs from 248 ODIs, and is only six centuries shy of catching up with Tendulkar.
