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It was a sunny morning in Dambulla on this very day 15 years back in 2008 when the 19-year-old and U-19 World Cup-winning captain, Virat Kohli made his debut for India. The Men in Blue under, the captaincy of former skipper MS Dhoni, were taking on the hosts Sri Lanka in the first ODI of the five-match series at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in Dambulla.
All eyes were on the young Kohli who was coming off with glory as captain of India U-19 in South Africa after winning the U-19 World Cup 2008. Although the then-19-year-old young batter failed to make an impact in his debut and he could score only 12 runs with a boundary before falling prey to Nuwan Kulasekara.
But who knew that it was just silence before a storm and in the succeeding years? Following that, the cricketing world witnessed the storm of batting maestro. Since then, he never looked back and keep achieving new heights at the highest level of the game.
An inspiriting journey of Virat Kohli becoming one of the greats of all time
Later, Virat made his debut in T20Is and Tests in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Currently, he is undoubtedly one of the greatest batters of all time who ever played the game. In his illustrious international career of one and a half decade, Kohli has played 111 Tests, 275 ODIs, and 115 T20Is, in these appearances, the 34-year-old has scored 8676 Test runs, 12898 ODI runs and 4008 T20I runs, including 29 Test centuries, 46 ODI centuries, and a T20I century with the bat.
Having 76 international centuries to his name, the modern-day batting great is only the second cricketer to have the most international centuries after the former legendary Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar (100 international centuries).
Cut to the present scenario, the former skipper will be in action with Team India in the upcoming Asia Cup 2023 and the ODI World Cup 2023, in India. Last time, he appeared for India in the two-match Test series against West Indies followed by a three-match ODI series.