Virat Kohli marked his 35th birthday on November 5 by notching up his historic 49th ODI century. The veteran right-handed batter, now in the latter half of his career, relished doing what he loves most – piling on runs for India.
Kohli, a cricketing icon with over 250 million Instagram followers, is a personality well-chronicled on social media. However, in this article, we delve into four things that might still be unfamiliar to most cricket enthusiasts.
Virat Kohli has never scored a century against a non-Test-playing nation
Quite a few fans might have noticed that some top batters have unbelievable records against the lower-ranked teams and non-Test playing nations. However, Despite boasting 78 international hundreds, Kohli has yet to breach the three-figure mark against associate teams or lower-ranked cricketing nations. Matches against Nepal, Namibia, Netherlands, UAE, Hong Kong, and Scotland have seen him either not bat, depart early, or remain unbeaten after promising starts.
Virat Kohli’s 4 IPL wickets
While Kohli now seldom takes to the bowling crease in the IPL, there was a phase when he used to bowl part-time. He often dabbled in part-time medium pace for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the early stages of his career.
In this stint, Kohli managed to snare four wickets. His initial two victims were Chamara Silva and Dwarka Ravi Teja from the Deccan Chargers in 2008. In 2011, he added the scalps of Brendon McCullum and Wriddhiman Saha, bowling against Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Chennai Super Kings, respectively.
Kohli did not win a single Man of the Match award in his first 3 seasons of IPL
Despite eventually becoming the highest run-scorer in the IPL, achieving seven centuries and clinching 16 Man of the Match awards, Kohli curiously failed to secure this accolade in his initial three IPL seasons.
In those formative seasons, he amassed 718 runs, including two half-centuries. Even though he missed out on Man of the Match honours, RCB showed unwavering faith in him, retaining him ahead of the 2011 IPL Mega Auction.
How much did Virat Kohli earn during his first season in IPL?
While it’s common knowledge that the Royal Challengers Bangalore retained Kohli for a whopping ₹15 crore before the IPL 2022 Mega Auction, lesser-known is his first salary, secured through the U-19 Draft.
According to Moneyball by InsideSport, from 2008 to 2010, Kohli earned a relatively modest ₹12 lakh per season. His earnings subsequently surged, reaching ₹8.28 crore when RCB retained him before the 2011 Mega Auction, and further skyrocketing to ₹12.5 crore in 2014 and ₹17 crore in 2018.
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