Happy Birthday Virat Kohli: Indian cricket's legendary batsman Virat Kohli is celebrating his 38th birthday today i.e. on 5th November. On this special occasion, his fans have got interesting information about his favorite ODI innings. Star Sports shared the video of an exclusive conversation with Virat Kohli, in which he was given the opportunity to choose his favorite innings from his memorable ODI innings of his career. Surprisingly, Kohli did not name any big century or record-breaking innings, but the innings played against England in the 2013 Champions Trophy final as his first choice.
35 runs overshadowed the unbeaten innings of 133 runs
In the video, the options of two innings were first presented to Virat Kohli. These included the unbeaten inning of 133 runs played against Sri Lanka in 2012 and 35 runs scored against Sri Lanka in the 2011 ODI World Cup final. Without wasting much time, Kohli chose the innings of 35 runs in the World Cup final.
After this, he had options like 85 runs scored against Australia in 2023, 122 runs against England in 2017 and 160 runs against South Africa in 2018. Despite this, Kohli did not change his choice and kept the innings of the 2011 World Cup final going forward.
43 runs became the first choice in the 2013 Champions Trophy final.
But the options were not exhausted yet, and ultimately Virat Kohli chose the innings of 43 runs he played against England in the 2013 Champions Trophy final as his favorite ODI innings. In this match, he scored 43 runs facing only 34 balls. His innings included four fours and a six.
The special thing about this match was that due to rain the match was played in 20-20 overs instead of 50 overs. England won the toss and decided to bowl first. In such a situation, Kohli got a chance to bat first. He made an important contribution in handling the Indian innings by scoring useful runs in difficult conditions. India scored 129 runs for 7 wickets in 20 overs and won the title by defeating England by 5 runs.
However, Kohli did not receive the Player of the Match award in this final. This honor went to Ravindra Jadeja, who along with scoring 33 runs, also took two wickets.
Even innings of 183 and 138 runs could not change the decision.
In the video, options like the historic innings of 183 runs played against Pakistan in 2012, 138 runs scored against South Africa in 2015 and 107 runs against Pakistan were also presented in front of Kohli in the video. All these innings are part of his brilliant ODI career.
However, Kohli gave priority to his innings of 43 runs in the 2013 Champions Trophy final every time. This made it clear that the importance of a favorite innings for a player is not determined only by the runs scored or personal records, but the memories and circumstances related to that match also matter. This choice of Virat became a special cricketing story for his fans on his birthday.