The hunt for the replacement of our greats in Indian cricket is been on for quite a few years. However, Virat Kohli was a name which was struggling to make its presence felt under the shadow of heavy weights of Indian cricket until 2011. Thanks to IPL which has introduced another name which is considered to be the next big thing in Indian cricket. He has been a regular with the Royal challenger Bangalore since the inaugural IPL.
Since his debut in 2008, the stylish batsman was competing with the likes of Raina, Yuvraj singh and Rohit Sharma to earn a permanent place in the Indian squad. Consistent performance backed by excellent temperament and good technique earned him a place in the world cup playing XI against established Raina.
Since then there has been no turning back in the transformation of an emerging talent into a seasoned cricketer.The elegant batsmen from Delhi Kohli did not have an impressive test debut in West Indies (July 2011) after the world cup showing weaknesses with the short ball. The nightmare in the test match continued until the third test against Australia where he scored some useful runs and a maiden test century in the final test answering all his critics.
The true testimony to the temperament of the stylish batsmen came in the way of two magical innings which included 133 (off 86 balls) in Australia against Sri Lanka and 183 (off 148 balls) against Pakistan in the recently concluded Asia cup stamping his future with authority. Kohli had a moderate success with the first two seasons of IPL; a decent average of about 27 in third IPL season helped him to be retained by RCB. Kohli enters this season of IPL in sparkling form and new found confidence. RCB would be hoping that the destructive Gayle combined with the new found golden touch of Kohli power them to the elusive honor of winning IPL season 5.
