Shubman Gill was eight, Yashasvi Jaiswal was six and Rishabh Pant was ten when Virat Kohli made his India debut on 18 August 2008. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi had not even been born. Here is how old 16 cricketers from India’s younger generation were that day, with their birth dates, exact ages and a few connections to Kohli’s career.
When did Virat Kohli make his India debut?
Virat Kohli played his first senior international match against Sri Lanka at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium on 18 August 2008. It was an ODI, the 50-over format, and Kohli opened the batting alongside Gautam Gambhir.
He scored 12 off 22 balls before Nuwan Kulasekara dismissed him lbw. India were bowled out for 146, and Sri Lanka won by eight wickets.
Kohli was still a teenager himself. Born on 5 November 1988, he was 19 years, 9 months and 13 days old on debut. That date is the starting point for every comparison below.
Young Indian cricketers’ ages on Virat Kohli’s debut day
The table uses each player’s date of birth to calculate their age on 18 August 2008. These are completed calendar years, months and days, rather than ages rounded to the nearest birthday.
| Player | Date of birth | Age on 18 August 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Shubman Gill | 8 September 1999 | 8 years, 11 months, 10 days |
| Yashasvi Jaiswal | 28 December 2001 | 6 years, 7 months, 21 days |
| Dhruv Jurel | 21 January 2001 | 7 years, 6 months, 28 days |
| Rishabh Pant | 4 October 1997 | 10 years, 10 months, 14 days |
| Arshdeep Singh | 5 February 1999 | 9 years, 6 months, 13 days |
| Abhishek Sharma | 4 September 2000 | 7 years, 11 months, 14 days |
| Vaibhav Sooryavanshi | 27 March 2011 | Not yet born |
| Ishan Kishan | 18 July 1998 | 10 years, 1 month |
| Tilak Varma | 8 November 2002 | 5 years, 9 months, 10 days |
| Rinku Singh | 12 October 1997 | 10 years, 10 months, 6 days |
| Riyan Parag | 10 November 2001 | 6 years, 9 months, 8 days |
| Washington Sundar | 5 October 1999 | 8 years, 10 months, 13 days |
| Ravi Bishnoi | 5 September 2000 | 7 years, 11 months, 13 days |
| Nitish Kumar Reddy | 26 May 2003 | 5 years, 2 months, 23 days |
| Sai Sudharsan | 15 October 2001 | 6 years, 10 months, 3 days |
| Harshit Rana | 22 December 2001 | 6 years, 7 months, 27 days |
Gill, Jaiswal and the younger batting generation
Shubman Gill was eight years old
Gill was only 21 days away from turning nine when Kohli first played for India. His September birthday matters here: simply subtracting 1999 from 2008 would incorrectly make him nine on debut day.
Gill’s own ODI debut came on 31 January 2019, more than ten years after Kohli’s first international appearance. His Test debut followed on 26 December 2020.
Yashasvi Jaiswal was six years old
Jaiswal was six years and seven months old, with his seventh birthday still more than four months away. He belongs to the group of players born in 2001, several of whom appear in this comparison.
There is also a later link to Kohli: both were in India’s playing XI for the Perth Test against Australia in November 2024. Jaiswal had gone from being a six-year-old at the time of Kohli’s debut to sharing India’s batting line-up with him.
Abhishek Sharma was seven years old
Abhishek was just short of eight when Kohli walked out to open in Dambulla. Born on 4 September 2000, the left-handed batter celebrated his eighth birthday 17 days after that match.
His age is almost identical to Ravi Bishnoi’s in this list. The two were born only one day apart, with Abhishek the older of the pair.
Tilak Varma was five years old
Tilak was five years and nine months old on Kohli’s debut day. Born on 8 November 2002, the left-handed batter would not turn six until November that year.
Among the players listed here who had already been born, only Nitish Kumar Reddy was younger than Tilak.
Rinku Singh was ten years old
Rinku was ten years and ten months old. His birth date, 12 October 1997, makes him just eight days younger than Pant.
Both therefore had the same age in completed years when Kohli debuted. Their eleventh birthdays were still to come in October 2008.
Riyan Parag was six years old
Parag was six years and nine months old on 18 August 2008. Born on 10 November 2001, he was younger than Sai Sudharsan but older than both Harshit Rana and Jaiswal.
Those four players share a birth year, although their exact ages on Kohli’s debut day differ by several weeks.
Sai Sudharsan was six years old
Sai Sudharsan was six years and ten months old. His seventh birthday arrived on 15 October 2008, just under two months after Kohli’s first ODI.
He is one of four six-year-olds in this selection, alongside Parag, Rana and Jaiswal.
How old were Pant, Jurel and Kishan?
Rishabh Pant was ten years old
Pant was ten years, ten months and fourteen days old when Kohli made his India debut. Born on 4 October 1997, he is the oldest of the 16 players in this article.
His career also offers a neat date connection. Pant made his Test debut on 18 August 2018, exactly ten years after Kohli’s first senior international match. Pant’s first appearance for India had already come in a T20I on 1 February 2017, so the 2018 anniversary relates specifically to his Test debut.
Dhruv Jurel was seven years old
Jurel was seven years and six months old when Kohli made his debut. His January birthday makes him older than the other players born in 2001 who feature here.
The wicketkeeper-batter later made his Test debut against England in Rajkot in 2024. In only his second Test, at Ranchi, he scored 90 and an unbeaten 39 and was named Player of the Match.
Ishan Kishan was ten years old
Kishan had turned ten exactly one month before Kohli’s debut. Born on 18 July 1998, the left-handed wicketkeeper-batter was therefore ten years and one month old that day.
He joins Pant and Rinku as the only players in this selection who had reached double figures in age by 18 August 2008.
Arshdeep, Sundar, Bishnoi, Reddy and Rana
Arshdeep Singh was nine years old
Arshdeep was nine years and six months old. Born on 5 February 1999, he had already celebrated his birthday for that year, unlike fellow 1999-born players Gill and Washington Sundar.
That explains why Arshdeep appears as nine in the table while Gill and Sundar were both still eight.
Washington Sundar was eight years old
Washington was eight years and ten months old, with his ninth birthday due on 5 October. He was 27 days younger than Gill.
Years later, he was another member of the India XI alongside Kohli in the November 2024 Perth Test, where he played as the side’s spin-bowling all-rounder.
Ravi Bishnoi was seven years old
Bishnoi was seven years, eleven months and thirteen days old. His eighth birthday fell on 5 September 2008, eighteen days after Kohli’s debut.
The leg-spinner was one day younger than Abhishek Sharma, which is why their exact ages in the table differ by a single day.
Nitish Kumar Reddy was five years old
Reddy was five years and two months old, making him the youngest player in this selection who was alive when Kohli debuted. He was born on 26 May 2003.
The connection became much more personal on 22 November 2024. Kohli presented Reddy with his Test cap in Perth, more than sixteen years after his own first international match.
Harshit Rana was six years old
Rana was six years and seven months old. Born on 22 December 2001, the fast bowler is six days older than Jaiswal.
He made his Test debut in the same Perth match as Reddy in November 2024. Rana received his cap from Ravichandran Ashwin, while Kohli presented Reddy’s.
Was Vaibhav Sooryavanshi born when Kohli debuted?
No. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was born on 27 March 2011, which was 2 years, 7 months and 9 days after Kohli’s India debut.
He therefore has no age to calculate for 18 August 2008. Listing him as zero years old would be misleading because it would suggest he was already a baby at the time.
His inclusion shows the largest generational gap in this article. While most of the other players were between five and ten years old, Sooryavanshi’s birth was still more than two and a half years away.
Why the exact debut date matters
This comparison is based on Kohli’s first match for the senior India team. It does not use his Under-19 appearances, IPL debut or first Test as the reference point.
It also accounts for whether a player’s birthday had happened by 18 August. Gill was eight rather than nine, Jaiswal was six rather than seven, and Abhishek was seven rather than eight. Using the full birth date keeps those small but important details correct.
