Indian skipper Virat Kohli turned 30 on Monday. The biggest match-winner in Indian cricket history is enjoying the best time of his life both in personally and professionally. In the last year Kohli got married to Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma and earlier in September, he received Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.
On his 30th birthday here are the 30 interesting facts of ‘Run Machine’ Kohli you might not know.
1. The Delhi born is fondly called ‘Cheeku’ by his teammates, the name was given by his coach Ajit Chaudhary of early cricketing days. He named him on the character in a comic book ‘Champak’.
2. The first time when Kohli got inked he didn’t ask or tell his coach at that time.
3. In his early cricketing days, the No 1-ranked ODI batsman idolised Herschelle Gibbs.
4. Virat Kohli got his first Man of the Match award from Gautam Gambhir, which was actually given to the left-handed opener. Gambhir shared his Man of the Match prize with young Kohli, who scored his maiden century in that match against Sri Lanka.
5. In 2008, Kohli led the Indian team to the Under 19 World Cup title.
6. The 30-year old is the only player to represent the same IPL team (Royal Challengers Bangalore) for 11 consecutive years.
7. ‘Run Machine’ Kohli is the fastest player to reach 10,000 run mark in One Day Internationals.
8. After Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the current Indian skipper became third cricketer to win Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.
9. King Kohli also owns an Indian Super League franchise FC Goa.
10. He is the most expensive player in Indian Premier League history as he bagged the new contract of 17 Crore in 2018 edition of the tournament.
11. He is the only player to score four centuries in a single season of IPL.
12. Along with Sachin and Virender Sehwag, the 30-year old has the most double hundreds (6) in Test cricket for the Indian team.
13. Kohli holds the record of fastest ODI century in ODI cricket by an Indian batsman.
14. He also holds the record of fastest 9000 runs in ODI cricket.
15. Virat Kohli is only Indian to score century against Pakistan in a World Cup match.
16. In 2006, he was playing a Ranji match against Karnataka when his father passed away. But he batted on the next day and scored 90 runs.