Virat Kohli is arguably the best batsman of the modern era. The greatness can be argued in terms of technique and temperament across all formats, but when we go through cricket annals, his succession of records proves him the best batsman of modern times.
Virat made his international debut on August 18, 2008 and since then he has accumulated 21,036 international runs at an average of 53.52. He already has 69 international centuries and 98 fifties to his name.
Virat, when he had first burst onto the international scene, was a raw talent and while, the batting ability was clearly there for everyone to see, people were not sure about his consistency.
Virat’s average in ODI cricket has never been an issue because he excelled in the ODIs right from the very beginning and only enhanced it as he came through the years, but he has jumped the ladder quite significantly in terms of his batting average in test cricket recently.
Virat didn’t have a great start to test cricket. He made his test debut in West Indies where he couldn’t return good numbers and was left out of the team.
He returned later, but just as he seemed to be resurrecting his test career, he had a horrific tour to England where he couldn’t score a single fifty in 10 innings.
However, Virat has moved on from that and has had some highly successful overseas test tours since then.
Till his 26th birthday, Virat’s batting average in test cricket was less than 40 and today, when he has turned 31, the Indian captain is averaging close to 55 in the longest format of the game.
We have compiled Virat Kohli’s batting averages at his birthdays since his international debut –
Test batting averages at each birthday
23rd Birthday (2011) – 27.28
24th Birthday (2012) – 41.35
25th birthday (2013) – 41.96
26th birthday (2014) – 39.46
27th birthday (2015) – 45.06
28th birthday (2016) – 45.56
29th birthday (2017) – 49.55
30th birthday (2018) – 54.57
31st birthday (2019) – 54.77
ODI batting averages at each birthday
20th birthday (2008)- 31.80
21st birthday (2009) – 37.00
22nd birthday (2010) – 44.46
23rd birthday (2011) – 45.91
24th birthday (2012) – 51.81
25th birthday (2013)- 51.77
26th birthday (2014) – 51.31
27th birthday (2015) – 50.60
28th birthday (2016) – 52.93
29th birthday (2017) – 55.74
30th birthday (2018) – 59.83
31st birthday (2019) – 60.31