Players on Team India praised Virat Kohli on his 35th birthday for his intense dedication to cricket. Many consider Kohli one of today’s best players, often being compared to cricket legends Sachin Tendulkar and Sir Viv Richards.
Becoming an international player in 2008, Virat Kohli has participated in 514 international games and has scored 26,209 runs with an average of 54.03. This includes 78 hundreds and 136 fifties. Among the highest scorers in international cricket, he’s fourth, after Sachin Tendulkar (34357), Kumar Sangakkara (28016), and Ricky Ponting (27483).
Teammates paid respect to Virat Kohli as he turned a year older in a video broadcast on the ICC’s Instagram account. He’s a compendium of contemporary Indian players’ opinions about the famous batter.
“His hunger and his passion for the game are unparalleled. I have not seen anyone who is as hungry and as passionate as him.”
Shubman Gill
“That fire and dedication towards the game after playing for so long has not fallen down. It only keeps on getting up. So that is something that I can also learn and everyone who watches the game, I am sure, learns a lot from.”
Jasprit Bumrah
“He has got the fitness culture. He has got the bond. He’s always there in the game. And that is something I think which will inspire, obviously a lot of us, but at the same point of time, a lot of millions of fans as well.”
Hardik Pandya
“He’s changed the DNA of thinking around Indian cricket. How one batsman needs to perceive it. How one batter needs to prepare for a game.”
Ravichandran Ashwin
Kohli will be seen in action against South Africa in the 2023 World Cup match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday.
“Virat’s a legend of the game” – Rahul Dravid on Virat Kohli
Not only his team but also head coach Rahul Dravid showered Kohli with compliments. Dravid says Virat Kohli’s extraordinary gameplays at 35 have become the standard for his cricket peers.
“Virat’s a legend of the game and especially this format [ODI]. All formats of the game, but particularly this one. The performances; the way he’s been able to finish games, the standard of his performances over the years has probably set a benchmark for his generation of cricketers.”
Rahul Dravid
514 intl. matches & counting ????
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 5, 2023
26,209 intl. runs & counting ????ICC World Cup &
ICC Champions Trophy winner ????
Here's wishing Virat Kohli – Former #TeamIndia Captain & one of the greatest modern-day batters – a very Happy Birthday!???????? pic.twitter.com/eUABQJYKT5
Virat Kohli has scored 442 runs in seven innings for India in the 2023 World Cup, with an average of 88.40 and a strike rate of 89.47.