Virat Kohli brought his 2017 to a premature end, deciding to skip the limited-overs leg of the Sri Lanka series. It was only learned on December 11 that the India captain took the break from cricket to get married to long-time girlfriend Anushka Sharma.
His marriage in Italy was the icing on the cake as the Delhi man, during the last 12 months of his bachelorhood, turned into a run-machine. He was unstoppable across all formats, scoring 1,059 runs in 10 Tests, 1,460 runs in 26 ODIs and 299 runs in 10 T20I Internationals.
Here is a look at his performances in all formats.
Tests
India did not play many Test matches. They played one-off match against Bangladesh, four-match series against Australia and six Tests versus Sri Lanka. Despite starting the year with a double century against Bangladesh and ending one a good note with Sri Lanka, his performances against Australia were disappointing. He scored 46 in 3 Test matches and also got injured, ruling him out of the fourth Test.
However, the India captain turned the tables around against a weak Sri Lankan team, scoring four hundreds, including two double hundreds.
Test matches in 2017
| Test matches | 10 |
| Runs | 1059 runs |
| Highest Score | 243 against Sri Lanka in Delhi |
| Average | 75.64 |
| 100s | 5 |
ODIs
It was in ODI cricket, where he had an amazing year. Kohli led from the front in most of the matches for Team India, and helped his team win matches on his own.
There was not a single competition or series, where Kohli failed to score. He was at his menacing best. The run-machine kicked off the year with a brilliant 122 against England, which just proved to be a start of an incredible year for the star in ODI cricket. The Delhi man ended the year with an amazing six centuries and 1,460 runs, which is an incredible feat.
Kohli looked in great knick during his last ODI series assignment against New Zealand, scoring two hundreds in three matches. Had Kohli not taken a break before the Sri Lanka ODI series, he would have scored at least one more hundred and made 2017 even more memorable.
However, Kohli might still rue the fact of missing out the chance of guiding India to Champions Trophy win. Kohli only contributed five runs to the team's total in the title-decider against Pakistan.
| ODI matches | 26 |
| Runs | 1,460 runs |
| Highest Score | 131 against Sri Lanka in Colombo |
| Average | 76.84 |
| 100s | 6 |
T20Is
Virat Kohli represented India in 10 T20I matches this year. The skipper had a decent year with the bat, scoring important runs when required. The T20 format is different where scoring runs at a quicker rate is important and Virat did that without taking much risks, unlike other players. It is his batting style -- keeping the ball on the ground, mostly -- in the T20I, which makes him special.
Kohli scored 308 runs in the IPL for RCB, who were poor overall.
| T20I matches | 10 |
| Runs | 299 runs |
| Highest Score | 82 against Sri Lanka in Colombo |
| Average | 37.37 |
| 50s | 2 |
Some of his records
Kohli became the third ever highest run-scorer in a calendar year. He scored 2,818 runs across all formats.
Kohli became India's highest-run scorer as captain across all formats in a calendar year.
He scored the fourth highest runs in a three-match Test series, scoring 610 against Sri Lanka in 2017. He only played five innings.
Kohli scored six hundreds in 2017, and in the process also jumped to second place in the most number of hundreds in the fifty-over game. He has struck 32 tons, 17 behind legend Sachin Tendulkar.
Virat Kohli broke Brian Lara's record for most double hundreds as captain after completing his sixth double ton in December 2017.
Kohli hit back-to-back double hundreds against Sri Lanka, becoming only the fourth person to achieve this feat.
He achieved his highest score of 243 runs against Sri Lanka.
He has scored the most number of centuries as India skipper (13).
