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Indian Skipper Virat Kohli Named Captain for all Three Formats

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Indian Skipper, Virat Kohli was officially named as the Indian Cricket Team’s New Captain for all the three formats on January 6, 2017 at Mumbai.

i. Virat takes over from India’s most successful ODI captain MS Dhoni who resigned from his roleon 5 january 2017. Virat took over the Test team captaincy from Dhoni full-time in January 2015 after the Dhoni retired from Test cricket at Melbourne in December 2014. 

ii. The daring batsman, Kohli, who has presided over an 18-match unbeaten run as Test captain, will first lead India in three one-day internationals starting from January 15 before the sides play three Twenty20 matches.

iii.However, Dhoni will remain a key player for India and has been named in the limited overs squads for the ODIs and T20Is against England. The squad will play the first warm up game against England in Mumbai on January 10th.

iv.The National Selection Committee under the chairmanship of MSK Prasad met in Mumbai to discuss the key selections.

v.The committee decided to include all-rounder Yuvraj Singh to ODI and T20 team after nine months. Batsmen Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane have been picked only for the ODIs. While veteran Ashish Nehra and Suresh Raina makes a comeback in the T20 squad, rookie wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant is the only new face in the T20 team.

vi.The series against England will start with the first ODI in Pune followed by games in Cuttack, on Jan 19 and in Kolkata on Jan 22. The T20s are scheduled from January 26 to February 1 in Kanpur, Nagpur and Bangalore.

About Virat Kohli

i.The new 28-year-old skipper, whose nickname is ‘King Kohli’, is the world’s number one-ranked batsman in T20 cricket and is also second in the rankings for the 50 over and five-day formats.

ii.Since taking over from Dhoni as Test skipper in early 2015, Kohli has lead India to five successive series victories and scoring three double centuries in the last six months.

iii.He was also the player of the tournament in 2016 World T20 and smashed the record for most runs in the last edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

iv.After making his debut in 2008, Kohli has scored 7,570 runs in 176 ODIs, including 26 hundreds and 38 half-centuries, at an average of 52.94. He also averages over 57 in T20 internationals.

v.Under his captaincy, India has built up a big lead over their rivals at the top position of the Test rankings, besides being second in the table in ODI cricket and third in the T20 format.

vi.His first major assignment will come in June when he will lead India’s defence of the Champions Trophy and will also Captain India in the 50 over World Cup final in England in 2019.

Awards won by Kohli

Captain of ICC ODI team of the year 2016, ICC ODI Player of the Year 2012, ICC World ODI XI for 2012 and 2014, BCCI’s Polly Umrigar Award for international cricketer of the year 2011–12 and 2014–15, Arjuna Award in the year 2013, CEAT International Cricketer of the Year 2011–12, 2013–14