On This Day: Virat Kohli makes his international debut in an ODI against Sri Lanka – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Fourteen years back on this day, one of the most prolific batsmen in international cricket, Virat Kohli made his senior India debut. It was on 18 August, 2008 that Kohli, then 19 years of age, made his ODI debut in a game against hosts Sri Lanka in Dambulla.

Kohli’s senior India debut had come just months after he inspired India to an ICC Under-19 World Cup title triumph, beating South Africa by 12 runs via Duckworth/Lewis method in the final.

Coming to Kohli’s debut match, all the Delhi batter could manage in his first senior India game were 12 runs from 22 balls, which included a four.

With India, then led by MS Dhoni, opting to bat first, Kohli had opened the innings with fellow Delhi cricketer Gautam Gambhir. However, Kohli was caught leg before by Nuwan Kulasekara on the fifth ball of the eighth over. This had come after Kohli had stitched a 23-run stand with Suresh Raina for the second wicket.

Yuvraj Singh (23) was India’s highest scorer of the innings as none of the batters could capitalise on a start to convert it into a big innings. India were bowled out for 146 inside 46 overs.

In reply, then Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene (61*) and Chamara Kapugedera (45) played match-winning knocks to take the Lankans home with eight wickets and more than 15 overs to spare.

In 2009 against Sri Lanka, Kohli would register his first international century, amassing 107 to help India win by seven wickets.

Kohli would make his T20I debut against Zimbabwe in 2010, which was followed by his Test debut against West Indies in 2011.

Kohli has captained Team India in 68 Tests, 95 ODIs and 50 T20Is, before relinquishing leadership duties across formats in the last one year.

To date, Kohli has played 102 Tests, 262 ODIs and 99 T20Is for India, where he has scored 8074, 12344 and 3308 runs across the three formats respectively. While he is yet to notch up a T20I century so far, Kohli has a combined tally of 70 international centuries (Tests and ODIs combined), the last of which came in November 2019 in a Test against Bangladesh.

However, Kohli has been struggling with the bat recently, having managed just 76 runs across five matches (One Test, two T20Is and two ODIs) against England in the UK earlier in the summer.

Kohli would hope for a change of fortunes when India begin their 2022 Asia Cup campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on 28 August. The continental tournament runs till 11 September, and acts as a marquee tournament ahead of the T20 World Cup, to be hosted by Australia, slated to begin in October this year.

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