‘Hold closest to my heart’: Virat Kohli names three most memorable moments of his career in the last decade

Shortly after being named the ICC Male cricketer of the decade, Virat Kohli revealed his three most memorable moments between 2010 and 2020. Kohli won the Sir Garfield Sobers award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, and pipped the likes of MS Dhoni, AB de Villiers and Kumar Sangakkara to also take the award for the ICC Men’s ODI Player of the Decade.

Kohli, who made his debut for India in 2008, had to wait until a year to hit his first of 70 international centuries, and during his journey with the Indian cricket team, was part of some of the most historical moments. However, for Kohli, the three moments that remain the closest to his heart are pretty much on expected lines.

“Firstly, it’s a great honour for me to receive this award,” Kohli said shortly after bagging the two prestigious awards. “The moments that I hold the closest to my heart in the last decade definitely has to be the World Cup win in 2011, the Champions Trophy win in 2013 and wining the series in Australia in 2018. These are the three moments that I hold dearly in my heart.”

Kohli came into his elements in the year 2014 when he was named Player of the Tournament in the 2014 World T20 in which India reached the final. From there, Kohli burned up the charts to soon become one of the best batsmen in the world. His exploits in the year 2016 will be tough to match even for Kohli himself.

Kohli’s rich vein of form saw India reach the semifinal of the World T20 in the year and he led India to the top of the ICC Test rankings. He led from the front, hitting four centuries as India secured three back-to-back Test series victories. He averages more than 75 in all three formats.

“I believe there have been many, many special games for Team India in the past decade and for me personally as well. I wouldn’t want to mention the personal knocks so much because then I’ll have to rate them and I don’t like doing that because for me every game played for India is as crucial,” Kohli added.

After being named captain in all formats in early 2017, under Kohli, India reached the final of the Champions Trophy that year and finished semi-finalists in the 2019 World Cup in England.