Happy Birthday Virat Kohli: Indian Cricket Team Captain Turns 33

 Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli turned 33 on Friday. One of the modern-day cricket greats, Kohli is currently leading the national side in the ongoing T20 World Cup where India sit in fourth spot in the Group 2 points table. Kohli will be looking to mark his birthday with a win over Scotland when the two sides clash in a Super 12 clash in Dubai on Friday. Pakistan currently top the group with four wins out of four. India lost their first two games in the tournament before winning the third.

The Virat Kohli-led side lost to Pakistan in their opening match by 10 wickets before New Zealand exposed the flaws in the Indian batting line-up during their eight-wicket win in Dubai.

However, the inaugural champions still have their semifinal hopes alive after their 66-run thrashing of Afghanistan. India need to win both of their remaining games with a better net run-rate and hope for New Zealand's defeat in at least one of their two remaining games.

Since, making his debut in 2008, Kohli has played 254 ODIs, 96 Tests, and 92 T20Is for the national side. He has enviable records in all the formats and is the only batsman to have a 50-plus average in all three formats of the game at the same time.

The Indian captain has 70 international hundreds (27 in Tests, 43 in ODIs) to his name that is the second-most by any player after legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who leads the tally with 100 tons.

The 33-year-old is also the leading run-scorer in men's T20 internationals with his 3225 runs in 92 matches.

The Delhi-born cricketer has been captaining the national in all three formats regularly for the last four years. He also has an excellent record as a skipper in international cricket but hasn't managed to lead his side to an ICC trophy during his captaincy.

Known for his aggressive captaincy, Kohli is the most successful Indian skipper in Test cricket when it comes to number of wins. Under his 65-match stint as captain, India have won 38 matches with remarkable Test series victories in foreign soils as well.

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Kohli led India to their first-ever Test series win in Australia in 2018 and later the team continued its dominance in 2021 by winning the second consecutive series Down Under.

However, the Indian batting giant is set to quit the captaincy role in the shortest format of the game after the T20 World Cup. He has already said his final goodbye to the captaincy job in IPL after leading Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for nine years.