Virat Kohli is unarguably one of the best batsmen of the 21st century. Born in the year 1988, today Virat turns 32. During these years, he has already established himself as a legend of the game of cricket. Besides batting, Virat Kohli has interests in pace bowling, that he practiced even in international cricket.
Virat grabbed attention for the first time as the captain of the Indian U-19 side. In fact, he led this youth team to victory in the 2008 U-19 World Cup at Malaysia. Eventually, he made his debut for the Indian senior squad later in the same year, and the rest is history!
Virat has achieved countless accomplishments in his 12 years in international cricket. In addition, he has been the backbone of Indian batting after the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar. Also, he has been a successful leader of the Indian team. Especially in test cricket, he has been exceptional on both the roles.
But do you know that Virat Kohli has taken the wickets of 4 top batsmen off his bowling in One Day International career?
Virat Kohli – the Right Arm ‘Quick’ Bowler
Virat Kohli had a knack for bowling in his early days as a cricketer. Once he claimed that he used to take the ball in domestic cricket whenever the main bowlers are not getting wickets for a long time. In his words, he is a right-arm ‘quick’ bowler. In fact, he introduced his bowling with this term during the 2008 U-19 World Cup, as seen in the video above.
He does not have great records as a bowler. Still, he managed to grab a few big fishes with the ball in ODIs.
In 248 One Day International games, Virat has rolled his arm on 48 innings. He has given 665 runs from 641 deliveries in exchange of 4 wickets.
The dismissals
Following is the list of cricketers who got dismissed off the bowling of Virat Kohli in ODIs.
| Serial No. | Batsman | Country | Year |
| 1 | Alastair Cook | England | 2011 |
| 2 | Craig Kieswetter | England | 2011 |
| 3 | Quinton de Kock | South Africa | 2013 |
| 4 | Brendon McCullum | New Zealand | 2014 |
Let’s find out some details of the wickets taken by Virat in ODI cricket.
Alastair Cook b Virat Kohli, India v England, Cardiff, 2011
India had a pretty torrid tour to England in the summers of 2011. The tour began right after the historical 2011 ICC World Cup and IPL that year. But, the visitors were completely outplayed by the hosts in this tour. England whitewashed India with a 4-0 victory in the test series. After that, they beat India in the only T20I. Not only that, they took the 5-match ODI series too with a lead of 3-0.
On the final ODI of the tour, Virat Kohli earned the first wicket of his One Day International bowling career. Earlier, India set a target of 305 batting first. Virat top-scored the innings with a gallant 107.
But, the match got marred by rain. When the play started, England got a revised target of 241 from 34 overs. Eventually, skipper Alastair Cook had a good partnership with Jonathon Trott for the second wicket. In fact, both of them scored individual fifties.
Virat was bowling the 18th over, when he shattered the leg stump of Cook at his personal score of 50(54).
Unfortunately, a young Jonny Bairstow propelled England to a victory with his quickfire knock of 21-ball-41 later.
Craig Kieswetter b Virat Kohli, India v England, Mohali, 2011
England made a return tour to India later that year. It comprised of 5 ODIs and a lone game of T20. England had to taste its own medicine in the ODI series. India brownwashed the visitors to 5-0 in the 5-match series.
The third match of this series took place in Mohali, Punjab. England, already trailing by 0-2, chose to bat first winning the toss.
Virat joined the pace trio of Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Praveen Kumar as the fourth pace option for India. On the 13th over, he bowled a full delivery outside off. England opener wicket-keeper Craig Kieswetter, at his personal score of 36(38), tried to slash in towards point. However, the ball took the inside edge of the bat and ended up dismantling the leg stump. In other words, Virat got his second wicket of ODI career.
Later, an Ajinkya Rahane knock of 91 helped India win the game by 5 wickets.
Quinton de Kock c&b Virat Kohli, India v South Africa Johannesburg, 2013
The Indian team toured South Africa during the year ending of 2013. It began with a 3-match ODI series that the hosts won with 2-0 margin.
In the first match of this series, the world saw the emergence of a young sensation, Quinton de Kock. In fact, the Proteas wicket-keeper scored 3 centuries, in each of the games that series.
Quinton was soaring at his score of 135(121) on the 42nd over of the first innings. Above all, none of the Indian front-line bowlers got spared from the wrath of his spectacular batting. However, Indian captain MS Dhoni called Kohli to deliver two overs in the middle.
Quinton smashed Kohli for a big six on the fourth ball of the over. However, Virat comes up with a slower delivery on the pads for the next ball. Quinton attempts for a drive, but the change of pace deceives him. The ball gets chipped in the air and eventually Virat catches it himself.
South Africa subsequently left a humongous target of 359 for the Indians. As a result, the visitors lost the game by a margin of 141 runs.
Brendon McCullum c Rohit Sharma b Virat Kohli, India v New Zealand, Wellington, 2014
The poor 2013 South Africa tour of Indians was followed by another painful tour to New Zealand in early 2014. It consisted of 5 ODIs and 2 tests, out of which India won none.
In the fifth ODI of the series, Virat took the final wicket of his ODI career as a medium pace bowler. In the beginning, India asked the hosts to bat first after winning the toss. Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor tormented the Indian bowlers badly before a series of wickets fell around the 40th over.
Kiwi skipper Brendon McCullum came to bat at no. 5. He was having great connection between his bat and the ball. With the help of one four and one six, he scored 23(18) before Jimmy Neesham took New Zealand to a comfortable score of 303/5 after 50 overs.
On the 44th over, McCullum danced down the track and attempted to steer a delivery off Kohli over the leg side boundary. However, he could not time it properly. The ball flew straight to Rohit Sharma standing inside the inner circle. In this way, Virat achieved the fourth wicket of his ODI career.
However, India lost the game by 87 runs. Even a promising knock of 82 from Virat could not help India chase the big target.
Conclusion
Virat does not really bowl much after he took over as the captain of the Indian cricket team. In fact, the last time he bowled in an ODI was in August 2017 at Sri Lanka.
Still, he has three accomplished batsmen in world cricket in his list of four dismissals.
In T20Is too, Virat has some precious wickets to his name. The list includes Kevin Pietersen, Mohammad Hafeez, Johnson Charlers and Samit Patel.
On the other hand, he got Brendon McCullum, Wriddhiman Saha, Chamara Silva and Dwaraka Ravi Teja dismissed in his IPL career with the ball in hand.
So, do you wish to see Virat with the ball yet again in international cricket? Let us know your opinion in the comments section.
Cover Image Courtesy: Virat Kohli all set to bat in the nets by Royal Challengers Bangalore, Flickr is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 / Modified from Original
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