As Virat Kohli celebrates his 28th birthday today, Nation Next gives you a glimpse of his fantastic career in 28 points!

? Born on November 5, 1988 in New Delhi, Virat Kohli, as a three-year-old was very passionate about cricket and would swing the bat and ask his father, Prem Kohli to bowl. His family recognised his passion for cricket and when he was nine-years-old, he was enrolled at the West Delhi Cricket Academy.

? Virat’s first big break came when played for the Delhi under-15 team in the Polly Umrigar trophy wherein he ended up being the leading run-scorer in the tournament. He then played for the Delhi under-17 team in the Vijay Merchant Trophy in late 2004. With him in the team, Delhi under-17 squad won the Vijay Merchant trophy in 2005 as Virat finished as the highest run-scorer once again.

? Virat made his first class debut for the Delhi team in November 2006. The now famous story about how a young Virat lost his father and still came to bat for his team the other day against Team Karnataka took place in December 2006. Virat scored 90 in that match.

? Virat Kohli was the captain of the Indian cricket team in the ICC Under-19 World Cup in 2008 held in Malaysia. Kohli led the team to the world cup win as he finished as the tournament’s third highest run-scorer. After the world cup, Virat was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore to play for the Indian Premier League (IPL).

? Virat made his one day international debut against Sri Lanka on August 18, 2008 at the age of 19!  Though he was dismissed at 12 in his first match, he made a comeback and made his first half century in the fourth match to lead Team India to a win. His first ODI century came again against Sri Lanka in 2009 when he made 107 runs at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

? Kohli made his test debut on June 20, 2011 Vs West Indies. His made his first century against Australia in Adelaide, Oval when he made 116 in the first innings of the fourth test match. It was the only century by an Indian in the four match test series.

? Virat replaced Yuvraj Singh (who suffered from an injury) in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy. In the match against West Indies, Kohli scored 79 and won his first man of the match award.

? In January 2010, he scored his second century against Bangladesh, in the process, becoming the only third Indian to score two-centuries before their 22nd birthday!

? In mid 2010, Virat was made the vice captain of the Indian cricket team for the tri-series against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka in Zimbabwe. Though India lost the series, Virat made two fifties and in the process became the fastest Indian batsman to reach 1000 runs in ODIs.

? Virat is also the fastest Indian to reach 4,000, 5,000 and 6,000 runs in ODIs in January 2013, November 2013 and November 2014 respectively. He became the fastest in world to reach 7,000 run in January 2016.

? In June 2010, Virat made his T20 debut against Zimbabwe. Virat is the fastest batsman in the world to reach 1000 runs in T20’s, a feat he achieved in October 2015.

? In the five match ODI series against South Africa in January 2011, Virat was the leading run-scorer, scoring 193 runs. During the series, he was rated as Number 2 batsman in the world according to ICC rankings for ODI.

? Post the series with South Africa, Virat was included in the 15-man squad for ICC World Cup 2011. Kohli made his fifth century in his first world cup match against Bangladesh becoming the first Indian to score a century on world cup debut. India won the 2011 world cup after 28 long years!

? In the 2011-2012, Commonwealth Bank triangular series against hosts Australia and Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka gave India a target of 321. India was struggling at 86/3 when Virat came to bat in. He made 133 not out in 86 balls to lead India to a comfortable win. Former cricketer Dean Jones called this knock ‘one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time!’

? In Asia Cup 2012, Kohli was named as the vice-captain for the squad. He was in brilliant form in the tournament and finished as the leading run-scorer with 357 runs at a staggering average of 119! It’s in this series that Virat he scored his best in ODIs – 183 runs off 148 balls – to help Team India chase the mammoth total of 330 runs. With this knock Kohli became the highest individual scorer against Pakistan in ODIs surpassing Brian Lara’s previous record of 156 runs.

? During Australia’s tour of India in 2013-2014 where the Australians played seven ODIs with India, Kohli was pretty successful with the bat. During this series, Virat became the fastest batsman in the world to score 17 hundreds in ODIs and became the top batsman as per the ICC rankings!

? When Indian Team toured South Africa in December 2013 for two ODIs and three tests, in his first ever test in South Africa, he scored 119 and 96 in 1st and second innings respectively becoming the first batsman from the subcontinent since 1998 to score a hundred in South Africa.

? During the ICC World Twenty20 in 2014, Kohli was named as the vice-captain. Virat made 77 off 58 balls against Sri Lanka taking the team to a total of 130/4. Even though Team India lost the match, Virat won the Man of the tournament award as he made 319 runs at an average of 106 setting up a record of most runs by an individual batsman in a single World Twenty20 tournament.

? In 2015, Virat Kohli gained the number one spot for T20 international batsmen as per the ICC rankings as he scored 66 off 41 balls against England.

? During the Sri Lankan tour of India in 2014-2015, Virat captained the Indian side for a complete ODI series for a second time. Kohli led India to a series win and it was the second whitewash under his captaincy. He was also awarded the player of the series of award as he scored 329 runs.

? Virat was awarded the Cricketer of the year award by ICC (International Cricket Council) for being the highest run-scorer for India in ODIs for three consecutive years – 2010, 2011 and 2012. In 2014, he became the second player in the world after former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly to score more than 1,000 runs in ODIs for four consecutive years.

? Virat took reigns of Indian test captaincy for the first time in December 2014 when India toured Australia for the Border-Gavaskar trophy. In the first innings of the first test, he scored a 115 becoming the fourth Indian to score a hundred on test cricket. He scored a 141 in the second innings becoming the fourth Indian player to score centuries in both the innings of a test match!

After Dhoni announced his retirement during this series (after being the captain for the second and third test), Kohli captained the team again in the fourth test. Kohli scored 147 in the first innings becoming the first batsman in test cricket history to score three hundreds as a captain! Kohli made 692 runs in the series, the most runs by any Indian batsman in a test series in Australia.

? In October 2016, he smashed his second double ton (he had made his first double ton against West Indies in 2010) against New Zealand as he made his career best 211 in test cricket.

? In 2011, Virat was the only player retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore for IPL and made the vice-captain. Kohli was the second leading run-scorer of the season making 557 runs with a strike rate of 121! Royal Challengers finished as runner-ups for the season.

? Kohli was appointed as the captain of Royal Challengers for the 2013 season. The team could not win the season but Kohli was successful with the bat as he scored 634 runs with a strike rate of 138 finishing as the third highest run-scorer for the season.

? In IPL 2016, Kohli scored 973 runs at an average of 81.08! With this,  he won the Orange cap and became the man with the most runs in an IPL season. Royal Challengers were runners-up for the tournament.

? In 2012, Virat was adjudged the ICC ODI player of the year. He was also adjudged as the BCCI’s international cricketer of the award for 2011-12 and 2014-15 season. In 2013, he was conferred upon with the Arjuna Award by the Government of India.

As of November 2016, Kohli has made 7,570 and 3,554 in ODIs and test cricket respectively. He has 13 centuries and 12 half centuries to his credit in test cricket and 26 centuries and 38 half centuries in ODIs. And given the fact that he turned just 28 today and there’s still a lot of years left in him for cricket, it seems that Virat Kohli will break a lot of records in the coming years, will make India shine many times (possibly help lift the next World Cup) and will leave behind a great legacy when he retires!

Happy Birthday Virat! Thank you for all the amazing moments you have given us. Wish you loads of love and abundant success!