How Virat Kohli's records and legendary status have been growing with each passing year

2014

At McLean Park in Napier, Kohli played a brilliant 123 runs knock to take the team fairly close to a win. However, he lost his wicket to Mitchell McClenaghan and India went on to lose the match. This was the first time that the Men in Blue lost a match when Kohli scored a century while chasing. Although that did not deter him one bit from the path as he scored 3 more centuries and 5 half centuries in the year.

A tough test series against England saw many raise questions on his technique of playing the ball outside off stump. The swing of the wicket and the English bowlers made it all too hard for him. But, as we all know from the fact that he came back to bat for Delhi even after the demise of his father, Kohli learned a lot from the dismal performance in England and never looked back.

He went on to score three centuries against Australia in their own backyard. 2 hundreds in 2 innings at the Adelaide Oval, probably his favourite hunting ground and then one at the MCG.

The T20 World Cup also took place that year and Virat scored 319 runs in 6 matches, but India went on to lose the final to Sri Lanka. He was also named player of the tournament but the look on his face after the final told the whole story.

Format	Matches	Runs	Average	Strike Rate	HS	100	50
ODIs	21	1054	58.55	99.62	139*	4	5
Test	10	847	44.57	-	169*	4	2
T20Is	7	385	96.25	133.68	77	0	5
IPL	14	359	27.61	122.10	73	0	2

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2015

The first test match of the year was at the Sydney Cricket Ground and Kohli was handed the captaincy of the side after MS Dhoni decided to retire from the longest format of the game midway through the test series. Always ready to step up his game under pressure, Kohli played a knock of 147 runs in the very first innings as a captain.

The right-hander had yet another brilliant season with the bat in the IPL, scoring in excess of 500 runs with 3 half-centuries. However, a T20 century was something which was still missing from his stats.

Format	Matches	Runs	Average	Strike Rate	HS	100	50
ODIs	20	623	36.64	80.59	138	2	1
Test	9	640	42.66	-	147	2	2
T20Is	2	44	22.00	157.14	43	0	0
IPL	16	505	45.90	130.82	82*	0	3

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2016

The year started with an ODI series against Australia down under. Virat smashed 2 half centuries and 2 centuries in the five-match series. In the three-match T20 series after the ODI one, he scored 90*, 59* and 50. No one had the minutest of ideas what was to follow.

In the World T20, Kohli finished the second highest run-getter with 273 runs in 5 innings at an astonishing average of 136.50. His innings of 82* against Australia in the Super 10 was one of the best T20 innings the World had ever seen. Virat scored 89 in the semifinal against West Indies as well but India failed to win the match. Another man of the tournament for him, but boy did he deserve the winner's medal.

Virat carried his form in the IPL and we all are completely aware of what happened next. He did not even have a single T20 century before the tournament but the genius went on to score four (yes, FOUR!) in the span of 14 matches.

Format	Matches	Runs	Average	Strike Rate	HS	100	50
ODIs	5	381	76.20	99.20	117	2	2
T20Is	13	625	125.00	139.5	90*	0	7
IPL*	14	919	91.9	152.4	113	4	6

The way he has improved his game with every passing year and has taken every challenge and failure as a stepping stone to move towards the top, Virat Kohli is certainly a name we, the Cricket lovers, will remember for a long long time to come.

*The stats mentioned do not include the IPL 2016 playoffs as the article was written before it.