Thirteen years have passed since the first IPL, Virat Kohli remains the only player to represent the same franchise in all the editions. When RCB bought him in the U-19 draft, he was a promising youngster but still a work in progress. His current IPL records are staggering.
Fans of the Indian Premier League has been fortunate enough to witness the full career growth of ‘The King’ starting from 2008. The cocky, fearless teenager from Delhi has become arguably the greatest white-ball player of all time. In this article, we will look at five records held by the Indian skipper.
#5 Most hundreds in an IPL season
Kohli’s career both internationally and in IPL was 2016 as he established himself as an outstanding all-format player. In the 2016 IPL, he hit four hundreds despite not being fully fit for some of the games. His first hundred was against Gujarat Lions but RCB lost the game.
The next century came in a huge chase against RPS and Kohli remained unbeaten as RCB clinched two points. In the reverse fixture, Gujarat were once again at the receiving end of a Kohli onslaught as he notched up his third century. The fourth hundred came against Punjab and this was his fastest as he scored 113 runs in just 50 balls.
#4 Youngest captain in IPL history
Virat Kohli was just 22 years old when he stood in for the injured Daniel Vettori against the Royals in 2011. It was a perfect start to his captaincy career as his team won comfortably by nine wickets. Ahead of the 2013 season, he was made the permanent captain by the RCB management.
‘The King’ led RCB to a fifth-place finish in his first season as skipper, missing out on the play-offs by two points. His best season as a captain was 2016 as he almost led RCB to glory with incredible batting performances. But RCB painstakingly lost a closely fought final in front of the home fans.
#3 Most hundreds by a captain in IPL
Kohli’s record as a captain for India and RCB is proof that captaincy can actually elevate the game of a player to the next level. In the IPL, Kohli hit unprecedented heights as captain in 2016 and since then he has been very consistent in every edition.
Adding to his four hundreds in 2016, Kohli hit the fifth century in 2019 against Kolkata Knight Riders. However, a death overs assault from Russell resulted in a defeat for RCB in that game.
#2 Most runs in a single season
In IPL, the general consensus seems to be that a batsman scoring over 500 runs is enjoying a brilliant season. Virat Kohli in 2016 scored 973 runs, a number that still astounds fans across the cricketing world. It is safe to assume that nobody will ever score more unless they share his DNA.
After the first five games of IPL 2016, many predicted that Kohli will get the orange cap at the end of the season. But nobody knew he was just getting started and could have scored 1000 runs if not for a rare failure in qualifier 1.
#1 Most runs in the history of IPL
In 2018 and 2019, Raina and Kohli were involved in a straight battle to become the IPL’s most prolific player. Raina’s absence in 2020 means that Kohli now leads the list by a fair margin with 5878 runs to his name.
All other players in the top 10 have either retired or older than Virat Kohli. This means that ‘The King’ is all set to enjoy a solo run at the top of the run charts until he retires.
