Virat Kohli continues to play ODIs for India despite retiring from T20Is and Tests.
Former India captain Virat Kohli and New Zealand’s Kane Williamson go a long way back, dating back to the 2008 ICC Under-19 World Cup. Both of them were captains of their respective under-19 sides, with Virat Kohli even leading India to the Under-19 World Cup title that year.
Both Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson have gone onto lead their respective senior sides too across all formats. Both Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson hold each other in great regard, and the latter recently went onto hail the Delhi cricketer on a stellar career he has had so far.
Virat Kohli retired from T20Is after India’s T20 World Cup title triumph last year and also from Tests in May this year. According to Kane Williamson, Virat Kohli is the greatest all-format player in the last 15 years.
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“Virat is probably the greatest all-format player we’ve seen in the last 15 years,” Kane Williamson, who is part of the famous Fab Four in Tests along with Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Joe Root, said on Sky Sports.
“He had his own challenges in an absolute cricket-obsessed country, and he was at the top of the tree. It’s a great relationship in slightly different ways. We’ve stayed in touch in a lot of ways as well. But, yeah, it was not really a competitive thing. You’re just in the team and you want to compete as a team,” added 34-year-old.
Virat Kohli has set several notable milestones during his international career. He has broken several records of Sachin Tendulkar, mostly in ODIs. Some of them include being the fastest to get to 14,000 ODI runs, fastest to 27,000 international runs and surpassing the Master Blaster for most ODI centuries.
The 36-year-old ended his Test career with 9230 runs from 123 Tests, scoring 31 fifties and 30 centuries. He played 125 T20Is and scored 4188 runs, 38 fifties and one century. In the 2024 T20 World Cup final against South Africa in Barbados, Virat Kohli scored 76 runs from 59 balls, hitting six fours and two sixes.
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Kane Williamson also spoke regarding his off-the-field friendship with Virat Kohli. The two of them have faced off on multiple occasions in international cricket, including the 2021 World Test Championship (WTC) final and the 2023 ODI World Cup semi-final.
“It was quite funny, just a full circle. That’s the other part. We’re not just playing cricket but you are living lives in a parallel way in a huge percentage. It’s the different things you experience as you get older, so you do connect on similar levels,” the Tauranga-born cricketer stated.
A new-look Indian team led by Shubman Gill is currently taking on England in a five-match Test series in England. The Test series is level 1-1 after two matches, with the third day of the third Test currently in progress.
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