2018: The year of King Kohli

As the curtain draws on 2018, we can have a look back at one of the finest years a player can ever have in the field of cricket. We're talking about the Indian cricket captain, Virat Kohli, who has had a second to none year in 2018. The year is all the more special for Kohli because all of his achievements have come away from home.

While there were question marks regarding Indian batting in overseas conditions in South Africa, England and Australia, Virat Kohli has managed to stand tall and establish himself as one of the greatest batsmen of all times. His captaincy and the pressures involved in being an Indian captain has brought out the best in Kohli, who thrives in such tough and pressure situations.

If we go by the numbers, Kohli is one of the two batsmen to have scored over a 1000 runs in Test Cricket in 2018, 1322 at an average of 55.08 in 13 Tests with five centuries. His ODI stats in 2018 will leave all the cricket lovers mind-boggled. Kohli played 14 ODIs in 2018 and scored 1202 runs at an unbelievable average of 133.56, with an astounding strike rate of 102.56.

There has been no ODI cricketer ever with such numbers in a calendar year. Considering Kohli scored most of those runs in foreign conditions makes those numbers look even more gigantic.

Kohli's captaincy in 2018 also reached new heights, he became India's fastest captain to 25 Test victories, with least amount of losses to go with it. He also achieved a rare feat of becoming the first Asian captain to win Test matches in South Africa, England and Australia. The star Indian captain also led India to their first ever ODI series win in South Africa, hammering the hosts by five games to one in the six-match ODI series.

The fact that India still hasn't won a Test series overseas does not take away the fact that India has fought tooth and nail under Kohli's captaincy, even in defeats and have not given the opposition any easy wins. India under Kohli will also end 2018 as the number 1 Test ranked team in the world for the third year in running.

Kohli's performance in non-batting friendly conditions has been extremely impressive. He notched up hundreds in Cape Town, Edgbaston and Perth, in which the conditions were very difficult to bat on and many of his contemporaries and his teammates could not even score half the runs Kohli scored.

Had the other Indian batsmen provided enough support to Kohli, India would have probably gone on to win the Test series in both South Africa and England. Kohli was the leading run-getter in both those series and was India's player of the series, highlighting his dominance with the bat. In the 2014 Test series in England, Kohli was troubled by the moving ball outside off-stump, particularly by James Anderson. In the 2018 series, Kohli rectified his mistakes of 2014 and notched up 594 runs in 10 innings without falling prey to James Anderson even once. That has to be called one of the greatest comebacks by a cricketer in a particular condition.

Kohli had a staggering year as an ODI player

Kohli in the ODIs was ominous, the first couple of ODIs of the year had him score big hundreds in winning causes for his country in South Africa. He hammered three tons against the Proteas and guided India to a famous first ever ODI series win in South Africa. His captaincy was also lauded in the ODIs against South Africa, particularly the way he handled his wrist-spinners who took loads of wickets in that series.

He also had a great ODI series in England, scoring 191 runs at an average of 63 in three matches. His incredible run of form continued at home, in which he scored 453 runs at an average of 151, with three back-to-back hundreds against the West Indies.

Kohli's ability to convert starts into hundreds is incredible, but his ability to convert hundreds into big impactful hundreds puts him on the highest pedestal. His hunger and drive never diminish while he's at the crease and is utterly disappointed whenever he gets out, even if he's batting on a score well over a hundred. This can be highlighted by his highest scores in 2018, 160 in ODIs and 153 in Tests, both coming when his team had lost early wickets and was under pressure to put up a reasonable total on the board.

Kohli's accomplishment of scoring 11 centuries in a calendar year is bettered only by Sachin Tendulkar who scored 12 in his prime year of 1998. He has also achieved the milestone of scoring the most number of runs in overseas conditions by an Indian batsman in a calendar year in 2018, surpassing the Wall, Rahul Dravid.

All these feats are evidence to the glorious cricketing year that Kohli has had in 2018. All the cricket lovers, especially Indian fans, would want Virat Kohli to keep going the same way and keep achieving similar success in the coming years. The following year, 2019, is the year of the ODI World Cup and all the Indian fans would be hoping that Virat Kohli stays fit and healthy and keeps growing as a cricketer and becomes a part of their reason to rejoice a third ODI World Cup victory.