Virat Kohli
Source: ESPNCricinfo, 15 February 2015 Virat Kohli ( pronunciation (help·info)) (born 5 November 1988) is an Indian cricketer. A right-handed middle-order batsman, he is the captain of the Indian Test team. He captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 U/19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. He represents Delhi in domestic cricket and is the captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise in the Indian Premier League. Kohli made his ODI debut in 2008 and was part of the Indian team which won the 2011 World Cup. Despite being a regular in the ODI side, Kohli only played his first Test in 2011 against West Indies at Kingston. On India's disastrous 2011/12 tour of Australia, in which India's senior batsmen struggled throughout, Kohli stood out, scoring his first Test hundred in Adelaide. In One Day International (ODI) cricket, Kohli holds multiple records including the record for the fastest century by an Indian batsman, and the fastest to 17 hundreds in ODI by any batsman. He is the fourth batsman in ODIs after Sourav Ganguly (1997–2000), Sachin Tendulkar (1996–98) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2007–09) to hit 1000 or more ODI runs in three or more consecutive calendar years. He also holds the record for most centuries in chases, with 11 centuries, behind only Sachin Tendulkar. He is the first batsman to make five successive scores of 50 or more in ODIs on two separate occasions. Kohli was the recipient of the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2012. SportsPro has rated him the 2nd most marketable athlete in the world. In October 2013, against Australia, Kohli smashed the fastest ODI century by an Indian, the seventh fastest ever. In November 2013, he became the top ranked ODI batsman for the first time. Kohli, also received the Man of the Tournament during the 2014 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.