Virat Kohli made his T20I debut for India in 2010, two years after his ODI debut, in Harare versus Zimbabwe.
One of the early signs of Kohli the Chase Master came right in his debut T20I knock when he helped India gun down a target of 112 with a sedate 21-ball 26-run knock, playing second fiddle role to Yusuf Pathan who smoked 37 off 24 balls.
Virat Kohli went on to become a legend of the game, achieving greatness in all three formats. He has so far played 97 T20I for India, in which he’s amassed 3296 runs at a staggering average of 51, with 30 fifties to his name.
Here’s the playing eleven from Virat Kohli’s first match, and what are they doing now:
Openers: Murali Vijay, Naman Ojha
A classical and stoic batsman, Murali Vijay played his last T20I for India in 2015 and was part of the Test side till 2018. The former CSK batsman now hasn’t played any competitive game in the last two years.
Naman Ojha, the wicket-keeper in Kohli’s first T20I in absence of MS Dhoni, could only add one more shortest format cap for India. He played a total of 4 games across three formats for India and continued to ply his trade in domestic cricket before announcing retirement in 2021. After that, Naman featured for the India Legends and Maharajas matches in the tournament for the retired cricketers.
Middle-order: Suresh Raina (C), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli
Suresh Raina was a regular part of the Indian team through mid-2010s but fell through the ranks and played his last international match in 2017, before announcing international retirement in 2020. He was part of the CSK team till 2021 but went unsold in the IPL 2022 mega-auction and is now a commentator.
Rohit Sharma rose in international cricket along with Kohli in the previous decade and is now arguably the best all-format opener in the world, along with being the new India captain. Both Kohli and Rohit have shared their highs and lows at the international level while their IPL success has been contrasting.
All-rounders: Yusuf Pathan, Ravichandran Ashwin
While Yusuf Pathan’s career took a shocking nosedive after the 2011 World Cup win – his last match for India was in 2012 – Ashwin has now become India’s second-leading Test wicket-taker and one of the country’s finest Test all-rounders.
Yusuf, an IPL champions with RR and KKR, retired from international cricket and then played the Legends tournament. Ashwin, meanwhile, made his return to India’s T20I team after four years and is going strong.
Bowlers: Ashok Dinda, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha, Vinay Kumar
While Piyush Chawla is still an active cricketer and played for Gujarat in domestic cricket last year, the other three – Dinda, Ojha, and Vinay Kumar – have retired from the game.
Dinda, the veteran Bengal seamer, retired last year and soon entered politics as a member of the BJP. Pragyan Ojha, the IPL winning spinner, also represented the India Legends team, is part of the BCCI as Member governing council, IPL and a representative of The Indian Cricketers Association.
Karnataka’s Vinay Kumar closed out his glorious domestic career last year and later joined Mumbai Indians, his former IPL franchise, as a talent scout.
