New Delhi, 28 September 2026: Virat Kohli himself has revealed that the 2027 ODI World Cup will be his last World Cup tournament. Virat, who was a part of the 2011 World Cup winning team, has said that during his last World Cup trip in 2027, he will give his all – putting together blood and services – on the field. Next year's World Cup will be co-organized by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Most of the matches will be played in South Africa, where Virat's average in ODIs is 76.38.
The 2027 One-Day World Cup will be held from October 4 to November 21. The format of this tournament has been changed, as 14 teams will compete for the trophy. Initially, a 'Super-3' series will be played between the three lowest ranked teams and then 12 teams will compete for the 'Super-7' stage.
I gave my all
In a conversation with JioHotstar, Virat Kohli said, “The World Cup will be played in foreign conditions. It requires a lot of energy and hard work. This will be my boy's World Cup and that is the source of my inspiration. I will give it my all.”
This will be the fifth ODI World Cup for the veteran batsman. Kohli has played two World Cup finals (2011 and 2023) and both these tournaments were held in India. In the 2011 World Cup final against Sri Lanka, he played a crucial innings of 35 runs at the crucial stage. On the other hand, Virat had scored 54 runs in the 2023 World Cup final, but the Indian team lost the match against Australia by six wickets.
He said that the 50 over format presents a unique challenge in itself. He explained that it was like playing two and a half T20 matches in a single day, and playing 10 such matches in the entire tournament would be really challenging.
Kohli's record in the World Cup
Virat Kohli is the second highest run scoring batsman in the history of One Day World Cup. So far he has scored 1,795 runs in 37 innings, which includes 5 centuries and 12 half-centuries. If Virat Kohli scores just 205 more runs in the 2027 World Cup, he will become the second batsman to cross the 2,000-run mark in this tournament. Before him, only Sachin Tendulkar had achieved this feat, who had scored 2,278 runs in 44 innings.