- July 17, 2025
Just when you thought Virat Kohli couldn’t break records again, he pulls off another mic-drop moment – even while retired! While Kohli, the Indian run machine, has retired from T20I and Test cricket, the ICC has just updated the T20I all-time rating points, with Kohli entering the record books for a whopping 909 rating points. That makes Kohli the first batter to reach 900 rating points across all forms of the game, Tests, ODIs, and T20Is. If there were a Hall of Fame for consistently excellent craving cricket, Kohli would be holding the master key.
The Legacy of Consistency: Why 900+ in All Formats Is Insane
The ICC released their latest update, which increases his T20I best to 909, and this is a fitting way to develop that resume. He already clocked 937 in Tests — the best for an Indian — and 909 in ODIs. These numbers are important for discussion because they are the ICC’s attempt to rate the superiority of a player within a format at their peak.
To put this into perspective, there are greats that never even reach the 900 mark in one format. It is like winning a Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medal in three different events at the same Olympics. This validates what followers have always felt – Kohli is not just a great batter, he is a generational talent.
Beyond Numbers: The Mental Game That Made Kohli Unstoppable
Cricket is as much a mental battle as it is a physical performance, as even if one stays physically fit, the format will shape the player’s mental state.
Kohli’s ability to switch gears at will – from grinding out centuries in Tests to providing calculated aggression in T20 cricket – has all come from his refusal to let anything break his mind. Who else would be able to cope with the level of pressure he did in the 2024 T20 World Cup Final, where he was a match-winning 76 runs vs. South Africa to win the World Cup, winning Player of the Match? That was not just a performance, that was a system on how to cope with pressure cricket.
Oh, and let’s not forget that in his 2025 IPL stint with RCB, he scored 657 runs at an average of 54.75 and eight fifties: hardly shabby. Most retired players disappear quietly; Kohli had more than a few fifties after his announcement: he ensured that his form screamed for itself before retirement in the shortest format.
What’s Next for Kohli: The ODI Chapter and the GOAT Debate
With T20Is and Tests behind him and limited to just ODIs to think about, Kohli is back to doing what he has always loved to do most of all. Let’s face it, he is still playing very well. With 14,181 runs, with 51 hundreds, Kohli has broken Sachin Tendulkar’s wonderful 49 ODI hundreds.
Maybe the 2027 ODI World Cup will be his final one, and if he can stay healthy, more records are waiting to be set. And the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) debate in cricket will continue on and on. But stats like this are not flex posts – they are records.
Kohli’s latest achievement of 900+ rating points across all formats is not just a statistical deviation but an indication of Kohli’s omnipotence across all formats. At 35, it is often the case that most players of the previous generations long to rest their performances, while Kohli continues to vivify his succession of what can be construed in modern-day cricket.
