Virat Kohli has played in every single edition of the IPL since it’s inception in 2008. Since then he has represented the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the biggest T20 competition across the globe. In the 12 years, while playing in the IPL, Kohli has taken his game to unimaginable peak as a batsman.
The skipper of RCB is the leading run-scorer in the competition that consists of every leading player in the world. Even though Kohli has still not lifted that elusive IPL trophy he still has numerous records to his name.
The maestro has infinite times stunned the opposition and produced breath-taking performance. We try to look upon some of the unknown records that he has held in the IPL. Records which are not often talked about as they get overshadowed by Kohli breaking numerous records in every match.
Here are 5 unknown records of Virat Kohli in IPL:
5. Only batsman to score a fifty when no other player reached double figures
Virat Kohli has often been the one-man army when playing for RCB in the IPL. Plenty of times his other teammates have failed to support him and that has led to the downfall of his team. One such occasion was in 2017 when Kohli’s side played the Rising Pune Supergiant away from home. RCB restricted the Pune side to 157 runs in their 20 overs. But unfortunately in the chase, no other RCB batsman showed up apart from Kohli.
Kohli scored 55 runs from his team total of 96 runs as his side face a massive defeat. After this match, Kohli became the only batsman to score a fifty when no other batsman even reached double figures. Next best score in the innings after the RCB skipper was 8 by Sreenath Aravind.
4. Hitting Sixes on the first two balls of a match
In walked the two-star players of the RCB, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli. The RCB captain took strike against fast bowler Varun Aaron. Kohli went bang bang on the first two deliveries as he struck two maximums on the first two balls of the match. Kohli in the innings scored 25 off just 7 balls and helped RCB post a score of 62 in their 5 overs.
3. The only Indian to score over 5000 runs on Indian soil
Virat Kohli is the only batsman in the league history who has amassed over 5000 runs alone on Indian soil. Out of a total of 5412 runs, he has scored 5061 runs across 156 IPL matches in India.
Kohli has so far scored 5 IPL tons and each one of them has come in India. Behind Kohli, CSK batsman Suresh Raina is at the second spot who in India has amassed 4835 runs in 174 innings on Indian soil.
2. Youngest IPL captain
Kohli was exactly 22 years and 187 when he made his captaincy debut a record which still stands. In 2013, he became a full-time RCB skipper after Daniel Vettori was stripped of the captaincy by the franchise.
1. Winning as captain against all teams in the IPL
His captaincy record is always criticised, as he has thus far failed to win the IPL title. But Kohli still holds a unique record as captain in the IPL that will surprise everyone. The 31-year-old has so far led RCB against 11 IPL teams. This is certainly one of the unknown records of Virat Kohli in IPL.
He is only the second captain who has been on the winning side against more than 10 teams. Only Gautam Gambhir is ahead of him, who has won as captain against all 12 teams that have ever featured in the IPL. Kohli is at second as he has won at least a single match against 11 different teams in the IPL that he has captained against.