50 Fun Facts About Virat Kohli

Which Bollywood actress did Kohli marry in December 2017 in a private ceremony near Florence, Italy?

Anushka Sharma and Kohli first met on a shampoo commercial shoot, and the Indian press fused their names into the couple's nickname, "Virushka".

Kohli's 76 in the 2024 T20 World Cup final, his last T20 international, came against which team?

South Africa lost by seven runs in Bridgetown, and Kohli was named player of the match before announcing his T20I retirement that same night.

Whose record of 49 ODI centuries did Kohli overtake at the 2023 World Cup, with his 50th hundred?

Sachin Tendulkar's mark of 49 fell in the semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium, where Kohli made 117 on his way to being named player of the tournament.

Whose mid-series retirement in Australia in December 2014 made Kohli India's permanent Test captain?

MS Dhoni quit Tests after the Melbourne match, and Kohli went on to become the first player to score centuries in his first three innings as captain.

Which shirt number does Kohli wear for India, echoed in the name of his Puma-backed lifestyle brand?

The brand is One8, launched with Puma in 2017, and 18 has been Kohli's number on the back of every India shirt he has worn.

Which team did Kohli's RCB beat by six runs in the 2025 IPL final, ending an 18-year title wait?

Punjab Kings fell short chasing 191 in Ahmedabad, and Kohli's 43 off 35 was the top score for a side that had lost finals in 2009, 2011 and 2016.

What nickname, made famous by a wicketkeeper's chatter on the stump mic, do teammates use for Kohli?

Cheeku came from a Delhi coach who thought a cropped haircut made young Kohli's cheeks and ears stand out, like the rabbit in the Champak comics.

Which stroke does Kohli consider his signature, despite a known weakness to balls wide of off stump?

The cover drive is Kohli's favourite shot, yet bowlers keep targeting that same off-stump channel because he is vulnerable to deliveries wide outside off.

Kohli is the most-followed Asian on which social media platform, with over 250 million followers?

Instagram pays handsomely: Kohli is reported to command around ₹8.9 crore for a single sponsored post on the platform.

Which magazine placed Kohli on its 2018 list of the world's 100 most influential people?

Time put Kohli among its 100 most influential people in 2018, the year he also became the first player to win the ICC's Cricketer, Test and ODI Player of the Year awards together.

Kohli received India's highest sporting honour in 2018; what is the award called?

The Khel Ratna came five years after Kohli's Arjuna Award, and in between he collected the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, in 2017.

At which position in the batting order does Kohli customarily walk in for India in ODIs?

Number three is where Kohli has scored more ODI runs than anyone in history, and his average climbs to 65.5 when India are batting second.

Which dietary change did Kohli make in 2018 to ease a cervical spine problem caused by uric acid?

Kohli went vegetarian but not vegan, and he still eats dairy; the spine condition had been affecting his finger movement and therefore his batting.

Which IPL award for the season's leading run-scorer did Kohli win in both 2016 and 2024?

The Orange Cap in 2016 came alongside the Most Valuable Player award, and the 2024 one arrived when Kohli was 35 and had given up the captaincy three years earlier.

From which format did Kohli retire in May 2025, after 123 matches and 30 centuries?

Test cricket lost Kohli at 36, after a poor series in Australia, with 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85 and a highest score of 254 not out.

Which tyre company's logo is on Kohli's bat, in one of the most lucrative bat deals in cricket?

MRF's logo has travelled on Kohli's bat for years, and by 2023 his overall brand value was reported to have reached ₹1,000 crore.

What was the profession of Kohli's father, Prem Nath, who died suddenly in December 2006?

A criminal lawyer by trade, Prem Nath Kohli had turned down offers to move his son to influential clubs that would have guaranteed his selection.

What colour of shoes does the superstitious Kohli insist on wearing whenever he takes the field?

White shoes are one of several rituals, alongside a black wristband, a single pair of gloves and a kara bangle worn on his right arm since 2012.

Which India captain retired from T20 internationals the same night as Kohli, after the 2024 final?

Rohit Sharma lifted the trophy and quit the format alongside Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, three retirements announced within hours of the win.

Which country hosted the 2008 Under-19 World Cup that Kohli captained India to win?

Malaysia's Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur staged the rain-hit final, and Kohli's 100 off 74 balls in the group stage was hailed by ESPNcricinfo as the innings of the tournament.

Kohli's century on World Cup debut came in the 2011 tournament's opening match against which team?

Bangladesh's Mirpur ground hosted the opener, where Virender Sehwag's 175 and Kohli's unbeaten 100 powered India to 370 for 4.

Kohli made his Test debut in June 2011 against which team, only to be dropped after a poor start?

West Indies provided the opposition for Kohli's first Test, and his maiden Test hundred did not arrive until January 2012 in Australia.

Against which side was Kohli batting for Delhi when his father died overnight, before he made 90?

Karnataka were the opponents in a December 2006 Ranji Trophy match; Kohli, unbeaten on 40 overnight, batted on to 90 and only then left for his father's funeral.

Which coach took on Kohli at the newly founded West Delhi Cricket Academy in 1998, when he was nine?

Rajkumar Sharma was introduced to the Kohli family after neighbours insisted the boy's talent deserved more than gully cricket.

At which ground did Kohli make 115 and 141 in December 2014, his first Test as stand-in captain?

Adelaide Oval's Test ended in defeat for Kohli's side, but his twin hundreds began a record-breaking series for an Indian batter in Australia.

Which prize did Kohli lift in 2019 as the first Asian captain to win a Test series in Australia?

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy was retained 2-1, and India then won the ODI series too, their first bilateral one-day series victory in Australia.

What is Kohli's highest ODI score, made against Pakistan in a 2012 Asia Cup chase of 330?

183 in Dhaka won Kohli the man-of-the-match award, and in more than forty ODI hundreds since he has never bettered it.

What was Kohli's highest Test score, an unbeaten innings as captain at Pune in October 2019?

254 not out beat his own 243 made at Delhi two years earlier, and it was one of seven Test double hundreds, every one of them scored as captain.

How many balls did Kohli need for the fastest ODI century by an Indian man, chasing 360 at Jaipur?

52 balls took Kohli to three figures against Australia, and India won by nine wickets with 39 balls to spare.

How many runs did Kohli pile up in the 2016 IPL, still the most by anyone in a single season?

973 runs at an average of 81.08 included four centuries, the first of them his maiden T20 hundred against Gujarat, and earned him the Most Valuable Player award.

Whose record for the most IPL centuries did Kohli pass with back-to-back hundreds in 2023?

Chris Gayle, his old RCB opening partner, held the record with six until Kohli's consecutive hundreds took him to seven, and he has added more since.

Who took over as RCB captain when Kohli stepped down after the 2021 IPL season?

Faf du Plessis led the side from 2022, and Kohli's nine seasons in charge had yielded one final, the 2016 loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight runs.

Kohli's only T20I century, an unbeaten 122 at the 2022 Asia Cup, came against which team?

Afghanistan conceded Kohli's first hundred in any format for more than 1,000 days, in Dubai, and he went on to top the run charts at that year's T20 World Cup.

Kohli's 117 in the 2023 World Cup semi-final, his 50th ODI century, came against which team?

New Zealand were the opponents at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, and India went on to lose the final to Australia in Ahmedabad.

How many runs did Kohli score at the 2023 World Cup, the most by anyone in a single edition?

765 runs at the age of 35 earned Kohli the player-of-the-tournament award even though India lost the final on home soil.

How many Tests did Kohli win as captain, the most by any India skipper?

40 wins came from 68 Tests between 2014 and 2022, against 27 for his predecessor, and Kohli's India held the ICC Test mace for three straight years.

Kohli won which ICC award for 2019, after urging Indian fans at the World Cup to stop booing Steve Smith?

The Spirit of Cricket honour followed Kohli's gesture at The Oval, where he asked a bay of Indian supporters to applaud Smith rather than heckle him, then apologised to Smith for the crowd.

Which men's casual-wear brand did Kohli launch with Anjana Reddy's Universal Sportsbiz?

Wrogn arrived in 2014 alongside a stake in the social platform Sport Convo, and Kohli later put ₹90 crore into the Chisel chain of gyms.

Which Indian Super League football club has counted Kohli among its co-owners since 2014?

FC Goa was Kohli's first business venture, and he went on to co-own the UAE Royals in tennis and the Bengaluru Yodhas in wrestling.

Kohli's first Test double century, exactly 200 in July 2016, came on which Caribbean island?

Antigua's Sir Vivian Richards Stadium hosted the innings, and that same year Kohli became only the fifth player to make three or more Test double hundreds in a calendar year.

How many runs did Kohli make in the 2014-15 Test series in Australia, a record for an Indian there?

692 runs came with four centuries, three of them in Kohli's first three innings as captain, a feat no one had managed before.

Kohli captained India in the first World Test Championship final in 2021 at which English ground?

The Rose Bowl in Southampton replaced Lord's because its on-site hotel allowed a COVID bubble, and the eight-wicket defeat was Kohli's third loss in an ICC knockout or final as captain.

Which ground hosted Kohli's 100th Test in March 2022, a match that was also Sri Lanka's 300th?

Mohali's PCA Stadium staged the milestone, and Kohli went on to finish with 123 Test caps and 9,230 runs before retiring from the format in 2025.

Which India cricketer recommended Kohli to agent Bunty Sajdeh after the 2008 Under-19 World Cup?

Yuvraj Singh's word got Kohli signed by Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment, the agency that built an endorsement portfolio worth over ₹100 crore by 2013.

Which animal-rights group named Kohli its India Person of the Year in 2019?

PETA's award came in 2019, and two years later Kohli's foundation helped set up a rehabilitation centre for stray animals in Mumbai, inspired by his wife's passion for animal welfare.

What is the name of the fine-dining restaurant Kohli opened in New Delhi in 2017?

Nueva, serving South American food, was Kohli's first restaurant; One8 Commune, a chain of restaurant bars named after his shirt number, followed in 2019.

What did Kohli average in the 2014 Test series in England, the low point of his career?

13.4 was Kohli's series average, yet within six months he was Test captain and scoring three centuries in his first three innings in charge.

Which charity football fixture of Kohli's foundation pits cricketers against Bollywood actors?

The Celebrity Clasico matches raise money for the Virat Kohli Foundation, set up in 2013 to support underprivileged children through partner NGOs.

What is the name of Kohli's daughter, his first child, born in January 2021?

Vamika was followed by a son, Akaay, born on 15 February 2024, and in 2023 the couple announced a philanthropic venture called SEVVA with their daughter as a partner.

Kohli made 43 in the rain-shortened 2013 Champions Trophy final against England at which ground?

Edgbaston's final was delayed almost six hours by rain and cut to 20 overs a side, and Kohli's 43 came after India had slumped to 66 for five.