Virat Kohli's cockiness exposed by former India teammate

Virat Kohli recently announced his retirement from Test cricket. The former India captain brought down the curtains on his illustrious Test career last month while IPL 2025 was underway.

The right-handed batsman had retired from T20Is last year after helping India win the T20 World Cup before retiring from the longest format of the game as well. Even though he has not announced his retirement from the ODIs, many believe that his days in international cricket are numbered.

Virat Kohli was destined for bigger things in life was very much clear even before he made his debut for Team India in 2008. In the same year, he had led India to glory in the Under-19 World Cup, and it did not take him long to earn his maiden call-up from the senior Indian team.

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Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan recently opened up on Virat Kohli's early days with the Indian team and how the batting stalwart made a huge impression on his teammates with his confidence. Recalling the 2008 tour of Sri Lanka when Kohli made his debut for Team India, Pathan said that the right-handed batsman 'owned the dressing room' with his 'confidence and cockiness'.

"He won the Under-19 World Cup as a captain in 2008. He came into the dressing room with confidence and cockiness. I saw him very closely in Sri Lanka. He owned the dressing room, and it did not feel like he was a youngster," Pathan said in a video on his YouTube channel.

Irfan Pathan on Virat Kohli's early struggle in IPL:

While Virat Kohli has been one of the best batsmen in the world for the last one decade or so, he did struggle to hit the ground running in international cricket as well as in the IPL. In his first three IPL seasons, the batting superstar could not even reach the 400-run mark before his fortunes finally changed in 2012 when he reached the 500-run mark for the first time.

Kohli has not looked back since then and is now the leading run-scorer in the history of the IPL. No batsman has scored more runs or centuries than him in the tournament's history.

"But when his IPL journey began in 2008, he got around 150 runs. It was not that special, but by the time the whole cycle of his youth ends in 2012, before that came in the 2011 season where he scored more than 500 runs for RCB for the first time in his IPL career. The peak of his career started from there," Pathan said.

Kohli recently won the IPL with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and ended the long wait for his maiden IPL trophy. He starred with the bat in IPL 2025, finishing the competition as his team's highest run-scorer.

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