18 August 2008 was the day when another batting star from India, Virat Kohli donned the famous blue jersey of Team India. With the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar in twilight of their careers at that time, India was desperately in need of a flag-bearer and one can safely say that Kohli has shouldered the responsibility with utmost aplomb.

The current India captain made his ODI debut on August 18 in 2008 against Sri Lanka as an opening batsman at Dambulla, the same venue where India will play the islanders in the first ODI on Sunday (August 20). Kohli did not have the best of debuts as he made managed only 12 but has come a long way since then. Currently the number one ODI batsman, Kohli has amassed over 8,000 runs at an impressive average of 54.68 and is third in the all-time leading centurions in ODIs with 28 hundreds to his name.

On Friday (August 19), BCCI‘s Twitter handle had shared a photo with Kohli sitting on the same chair on which he sat 9 years ago during his debut match and the 28-year old opened up on how he felt when he visited the venue again for the upcoming ODI.

“Yeah it’s quite special. When we arrived here yesterday, a lot of memories came back. It was coincidentally the same chair I sat on nine years ago when I first played for India, so very happy memories from this place. First time I ever opened in professional cricket was for India. I had never done something like that. Quite adventurous first couple of games for me, but yeah good to remember nine years down the line, same date, same month, same stadium, so it couldn’t have been more special for me. So that’s why I thought the picture had to be put out there,” he said at the pre-match conference.