The decision to confer the Arjuna award on India’s number three batsman Virat Kohli, who is only in his fifth year of international cricket, is a fair one. The 24-year-old has made a massive impact on Indian cricket in all forms of the game ever since entering the international arena. His record in all formats speaks for itself --- an average of 42 after 18 Tests with four hundreds and that of 49.7 in one-dayers after 113 games with as many as 15 hundreds. Even in T20s, Kohli averages an impressive 35 with four fifties after 20 games.
The most striking aspect of Kohli has been his ability to rise to the occasion when the team has been under immense pressure. Right from the time he made his debut, Kohli has been consistency-personified, coming up with the goods every time the team needs it. In his very first series in Sri Lanka in 2008, one which Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were not part of, Kohli scored a crucial 54 which helped India win the series. His love affair with Sri Lanka has continued since. When Lanka toured India in 2009, Kohli registered his maiden ODI ton, sharing a 224-run stand with Gautam Gambhir, as India again won the series.
Kohli was fast emerging as a great talent. In the tri-series in Bangladesh, he scored his second ton, which made him only the third Indian player to have two ODI tons before turning 22. So impressed were the selectors by his performance that he was made vice-captain for the tri-series in Zimbabwe in 2010 when the senior players were rested. Kohli ended up having a brilliant 2010. He became the fastest Indian to cross 1,000 runs in one-day cricket. What’s more he was also the country’s leading run-scorer in 2010, with 995 runs from 25 matches, averaging 47 with three tons.
Although he had a mixed 2011 World Cup, Kohli did make an impact here as well. He became the first Indian to score an century on World Cup debut, in the match against Bangladesh. He also scored an important 59 in the West Indies, but his most important contribution came in the final. Even though he made only 35, Kohli shared in a significant 83-run stand with Gautam Gambhir, which helped settle the nerves in the Indian dressing room after India had lost Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar early.
The World Cup win seems to have inspired Kohli on to better things, as since then he has played some amazing ODI knocks to take India to unbelievable wins. It began at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart when he smashed 133 off 86 balls to keep India alive in the tri-series Down Under in 2012. Then there was that smashing 183 off 148 balls against Pakistan at Mirpur in the same year. In Tests, his maiden century at Adelaide was India’s only saving grace during their disastrous tour. Kohli’s value to the Indian side can be gauged from the fact that all but one of his ODI tons have resulted in victories for India.
--By A Cricket Analyst
