Virat Kohli, today is undeniably the most popular cricketer in the World. A genius with the bat, electrifying in the field and ruthless as a captain. The 31-year-old has become an unprecedented entity over the years in his career. Truly a global icon today Kohli draws attention from every quarter. From fans to the media everyone wants a piece of him. He is a statisticians delight since every time he walks on the cricket field he tends to create new records. Among the extravagant list of records he possesses, there are some unknown facts about Virat Kohli as well.
The world knows he eats run chases for dinner and has become the chase master. He currently is also the only player to average 50 in all formats. However, there are more interesting and unknown facts about the captain of India which the world isn’t aware of.
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We try to dig some unknown facts about Virat Kohli from his professional as well as personal life:
10. The most T20 runs without a 100
Virat Kohli is a complete player who owns every format of the game. He has reached incredible heights in his T20 career in international cricket. The maestro is the highest run-scorer in T20 internationals with 2994 runs with 24 fifties. But Kohli has still not reached triple digits in the shortest formats of the game.
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His highest score being 94* against West Indies at Hyderabad. A player of the class Kohli is, he will be soon aiming to score a much-awaited century in T20I. The T20 World cup is round the corner and the run machine of India hopefully reaches the elusive landmark in Australia this year.
9. Three-time Wisden’s leading cricketer in the world
Wisden is the oldest cricket record book in the world. The UK based cricket book also is known as the ‘Bible of Cricket’ and is considered the most prestigious cricket book. Every Year Wisden chooses the leading cricketer in the world according to the performances throughout the 12 months.
Virat Kohli is the only player in the world, who has been named the leading cricketer in the world three times. Moreover, he has won it in three successive years from 2016-2019.
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8. Virat Kohli has a total of 9 tattoos on his body
Virat Kohli is known for flaunting numerous tattoos on his body. But how many does he have? The answer is Kohli has 9 tattoos on his body. He, in the first episode of National Geographic’s series Mega icons, revealed all secrets about all his tattoos.
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He has the following tattoos Names of his parents (Prem and Saroj), Lord Shiva, Monastery, ODI and Test cap numbers (175, 269), Tribal art, zodiac sign ( Scorpio), Japanese Samurai, God’s eye and Om symbol. Every tattoo on his body has a meaningful story that makes him realise where he was and where he has reached now.
7. One of only 3 other captains to declare the innings after scoring 250
Virat Kohli has always been a team player and the entire focus is to take his team to a winning position. Individual milestones are never his priority and he never judges a game by only seeing his numbers. The Indian captain scored his highest Test score against South Africa in Pune in 2019.
The crowd was anticipating him to score his first triple century as he had a lot of time in the Test match. Virat surprised everyone as he declared the innings when he was batting on 254*. He joined an elite list of captains, who declared the innings after reaching 250. Others being Peter May, Stephen Fleming and Micheal Clarke.
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Kohli was on the verge of becoming India’s first captain to score the big 300 but choose against it and decided to put the team first.
6. Most 150’s in ODI as a non-opener
150 is a lot of runs in an ODI inning, especially you are not an opening batsman of your squad. Kohli holds the record for most 150s as a non-opener with 4. The great man has thus far scored 150 on 4 occasions which are 183 vs Pakistan, 160*vs South Africa, 157* vs West Indies and 154* vs New Zealand.
India won on 3 occasions when he has made a score above 150. The only time India has not was against the West Indies at Vizag when the match was tied.
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5. Virat Kohli meeting his wife Anushka Sharma for the first time
Virat and Anushka are the most desirable couple in India right now. The two stars got married on 11 December in 2017 in Italy. The two first met each other on the sets of a shampoo advertisement way back in 2013. Before that Virat and Anushka had not known each other and that was their first-ever meeting.
While shooting for the commercial the two got along really well and became friends. Virat has also revealed that he was extremely nervous before their first meeting as Anushka was already a star. But then the Delhi boy managed to crack a joke immediately and it helped in breaking the ice between the two.
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4. Bruno his pet dog
Virat Kohli is a big animal lover and himself has his pet named ‘Bruno’ at his house. He has many times shared a picture and video with him on his various social media handles. Kohli shares a very strong bond with his pet dog and considers him a part of his family.
However, this isn’t the first time Virat has owned a pet dog, he previously had a white Pomeranian and also a Golden Labrador Retriever named Rico. In 2017, he also passively adopted around 15 rescued dogs in Bangalore.
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3. Virat Kohli’s favourite sportsmen
Virat Kohli favourite non-cricketer sportsmen have always been Roger Federer. He has always admired the way the Tennis legend has conducted himself on and off the Tennis court. Kohli has personally met Federer quite a few times now of which he has share photos on social media.
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Also, he revealed that Federer remembered him when he met him again along with his wife Anushka during the 2019 Australian open. In his meeting, Kohli asked Federer about his mindset while playing the game and how he prepares and thinks about his sports.
2. Virat Kohli’s favourite food
Virat Kohli when he was young was a big foodie and typically like the Delhi street food growing up. He was extremely fond of Chole Bhature and would indulge in eating the famous street food after his cricket coaching. But now since he has become a fitness freak he has given up eating on all food that contains refined carbohydrates.
Kohli in 2018 also turned vegetarian and his favourite cuisine now is Japanese. But once he is back home from a tour he also enjoys eating home-cooked food made by his mom.
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1. Clean sweeping all ICC awards in one year
Virat Kohli made history in 2018 as he became the first and only cricketer in history all the major International Cricket Council awards. The batting superstar had a sensational 2018 in all formats and was rewarded by ICC. He won the Garfield Sobers Cricketer of the year awards, ICC Test Player of the year and ICC ODI player of the year.
Not only he won all the individual awards but he was also named the captain of ODI and Test team of the year respectively. In 2018 the Indian captain scored 1,322 Test runs, 1202 ODI runs and 211 T20I runs respectively.