Flashback: The only bowler to take a wicket before bowling his first legal delivery

Virat Kohli is the uncrowned king of batting, but if you know that there is a world record in his name in bowling, it is surprising because he bowls very rarely. Although in Test, ODI or T20 International cricket, he has occasionally been seen trying his hand at bowling. Virat Kohli once achieved a feat that no bowler in the world has done before or after him in the shortest format of cricket.

Virat Kohli is the only bowler in the world who got a player out before bowling a valid ball in T20 International cricket. That is, he got a wicket on the ball which the umpire did not consider valid. So do you know when this unique incident happened? In the year 2011, Team India went on a tour of England and during that time a T20 series was also played between the two teams.

In a match of this series, which was played on 31 August 2011, Kohli made a unique record as a bowler. In this T20I, played under the captaincy of MS Dhoni, the batsman bowled 3 overs and took one wicket for 22 runs. When Dhoni handed the ball to Virat to bowl, he had to bowl the 8th over of the innings.

Virat Kohli bowled the first ball of his first over to Kevin Pietersen who was at the crease at that time. This ball went outside the leg stump and Pietersen had already come out of the crease to play it. Dhoni did not delay behind stumps at all and after collecting the ball, immediately he scattered the stumps and Pietersen was declared stump out. But this ball was outside the leg stump, so the umpire called it a wide ball.

In this way, Virat got a wicket on his wide ball even before bowling a legal ball. This was the first time in T20 International cricket that a bowler had taken a wicket before bowling his first valid ball. India lost by 6 wickets in this match. In his career, Virat has taken 4 wickets in 90 matches in T20 International cricket.