The Indo- Pak Champions Trophy 2025, were seriously a one sided affair, where Men in Blue completely dominated the entire match and won against arch nemesis Pakistan by 6 wickets.
One man who always stand up against Pakistan, in ICC events is none other than Chase Master Virat Kohli.
Kohli love story with Pakistan continued from 2012, where he scored 183 runs in Asia Cup which was an impossible game, but he ensured Men in Blue cross the line.
Virat Kohli had a mouth staggering record against Pakistan so far in ODI Cricket where he scored 778 runs in 17 matches at an impressive average of 52.12 and strike rate 100.29.
Kohli not only scored 51st ODI Hundred but he went one notch higher, and created multiple records, is shared in the below format:
Total Number of ODI matches played so far: 299
Total Number of Innings played by Virat Kohli so far: 287
No of Catches taken: 158 catches
Overall Run Scorer list in International Cricket: Kohli with 14,085 runs became 3rd ever batsman to cross 14,000 runs trailing behind Kumar Sangakkara(14,234 runs) & Tendulkar(18,426 runs) in ODI Cricket.
In overall run scorer list in all three formats of the game, Kohli currently stand at number 3rd place with 27,503 runs is trailing behind Sangakkara(28,016 runs) & Tendulkar (34,357 runs).
Let us reshare Virat Kohli runs against Pakistan so far to be shared in the below format in ICC Events:
2011 ODI World Cup (Semifinal): 9 runs from 21 balls
2012 T20 World Cup(Super 8): 78* runs from 61 balls
2014 T20 World Cup (League Stage): 36&* runs from 32 balls
2015 ODI World Cup: 107 runs from 126 balls
2016 T20 World Cup(Super 10): 55* runs from 37 balls
2019 ODI World Cup(League Stage): 77 runs from 65 balls
2021 T20 World Cup (League Stage): 57 runs from 49 balls
2022 T20 World Cup(Super 12): 82 runs from 53 balls
2023 World Cup(League Stage): 16 runs from 18 balls
2024 T20 World Cup: 4 runs from 2 balls
2025 Champions Trophy: 100* runs from 111 balls
My Perspective:
Virat Kohli will certainly go down as one of the biggest match winner for India and his name will be echoed as the player who delivered in the crunch phase of the game when it was needed the most.
Kohli’s ability to score hundred in chasing cause makes him another batter to deliver under extreme pressure and making sure that his most hundreds comes in winning cause.
Talking about the development of the match, Kohli came out to bat when India scored 30 odd runs at the loss of 1 wickets.
Kohli initially took time and scored 4 fours in his half century.
The best part about him, that he was aware about situations and understood what needs to be done in Dubai pitch against Pakistan.
He said in post match conference “It was slow surface and was imperatively difficult for batters to charge against Spinner, in that case they decided to march on against Fast bowlers which we did brilliantly in the middle over of the game”.
He further added that “Credit for my innings should be given to our openers who are showing intent and charging bowlers in first 10 overs and those early start helps us to capitalize this further which we did successfully”.
India would be next facing against New Zealand on 2nd March 2025, and it would be interesting to see whether they would give chances to bench strength as they have almost qualified for the semifinals now but the strategy implemented by Rohit and Company seems that they would go with the same team in the Upcoming encounter.
India would love to go with same intent and approach, try finishing at Top Spot in their group, so that they can bottom placed team of opposite group.
One thing which is good for India, they would be playing all their matches at Dubai International Stadium, Dubai which would help them to acclimatize their conditions.
You can watch all the actions live on Star Sports and the same will be streamed live on Jiohotstar app.
