'Forever grateful': Virat Kohli completes 15 years in cricket

Indian cricket great Virat Kohli on Friday celebrated his 15-year journey in international cricket, with several records to his name and ups and down in his extraordinary career trajectory.

Kohli, who hails from Delhi and is known for his talent with the bat, started his career at the age of 18 and became a young U-19 winning captain.

The star batter, who is now looking to enter the 16th year of his career and eyeing a second ODI World Cup triumph, played his first-ever match on the international stage against Sri Lanka in Dambulla on August 18, 2008.

Taking to his official account on X, previously Twitter, the 34-year-old shared his feelings on completing 15 years in cricket.

"Forever grateful," he wrote.

While playing as an opener, Kohli could only score 12 runs in his opening game. But who knew, the right-handed batter will go on to become World's greatest batsman in modern-day cricket.

So far, Kohli has played 275 ODIs for India, scoring 12898 runs at an average of 57.32 including 46 hundred and 65 fifties.

He cemented his name as one of the prolific finishers for Team India in the 50-over format. He has the most number of 100s when India chased down 300+ runs in ODIs.

He also has the second-most number of 100s across formats with a tally of 76. He is just behind Sachin Tendulkar who had scored 100 centuries across formats.

Kohli left India's captaincy after their dismal run in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. He decided to play as a specialist batter and will represent India in this year's Asia Cup and World Cup.

Asia Cup will be played in Pakistan and Sri Lanka from August 30 to September 17 whereas World Cup is scheduled to take place in India from October 5 to November 19.