Virat Kohli: From Cricket Captain to Global Brand Icon — 26 Historic Moments
More than a cricketer, Virat Kohli is a phenomenon. These 26 photographs trace his extraordinary journey from Delhi's Uttam Nagar lanes to sold-out stadiums on every continent.
Photo: Nationalism News Photo Desk
There are athletes, and there are phenomena. Virat Kohli belongs to the second category. These 26 photographs, assembled from five years of exclusive access across four continents, attempt to capture the full measure of a man who has become the most commercially powerful sportsperson India has ever produced.
The cricket photographs are the ones everyone expects. Kohli at the MCG in Melbourne, raising his bat after his 76th international century. Kohli in the IPL final at Narendra Modi Stadium, the camera catching the exact millisecond of the winning shot. Kohli at the ICC Cricket World Cup in the UK, saluting a crowd of 85,000.
But the brand photographs tell a different story. In a boardroom in Tokyo — shot with Kohli's permission during an exclusive product endorsement negotiation — he is focused, measured and entirely in command of a conversation conducted in two languages through translators. The 90-minute meeting concluded with a deal worth a reported ₹120 crore.
The personal photographs are the rarest. Kohli and Anushka Sharma at their farm in Alibaug, in wellies, feeding their horses on a Sunday morning. Kohli reading to his daughter Vamika, her head on his chest, completely absorbed in the story he is telling. These are the frames his publicist initially said no to, and then said yes to, on the condition that we describe exactly what they show: a man who is, before everything else, a father.
26 photographs. One extraordinary life. India's greatest cricketer — and arguably its greatest sporting export — documented in full.