What is Virat Kohli’s IQ?
The nearest thing to an IQ result for Virat Kohli is a sponsor’s “Match IQ” award, which rewards one decision in one match; “cricket IQ” is praise for how he reads a game, not a score.
No published IQ test result exists for Virat Kohli, and no credible figure circulates for him. What is documented is 85 international hundreds, 68 Tests as India’s captain and a CBSE Class 10 total of 419 of 600 that he shared himself, a record that supports an estimated IQ of about 100–115, the same band this site gives Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Neymar.
Virat Kohli’s estimated IQ
- An international record documented to the run: as of September 24, 2026, ESPNcricinfo lists 9,230 Test runs (123 Tests, average 46.85, 30 hundreds), 14,941 ODI runs (314 matches, average 58.59, 54 hundreds) and 4,188 T20I runs (125 matches, one hundred): 85 international hundreds.
- Leadership on the record: he captained India’s Under-19 team to the 2008 World Cup title (a 12-run Duckworth–Lewis win over South Africa in the March 2 final) and led India in 68 Tests between 2014 and 2022, winning 40, losing 17 and drawing 11.
- Results in the biggest games: 117 in the 2023 World Cup semi-final on November 15, 2023, his 50th ODI hundred, passing Sachin Tendulkar’s long-standing record; 76 off 59 balls in the 2024 T20 World Cup final; and an unbeaten 75 off 42 in the 2026 IPL final.
- National honors: the Arjuna Award (2013), the Padma Shri (2017) and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2018), India’s highest sporting honor.
- A school record he shared himself: a CBSE Class 10 total of 419 of 600 in 2004, then schooling in Delhi through Class 12 and, by one profile’s account, no higher education.
Nothing here measures reasoning: a batting average, a captaincy record and a Class 10 marksheet show a trained visual-motor skill, leadership and school performance. A quick first eye movement to the bounce point separates good batsmen from poor ones (Land and McLeod, 2000), and the executive functions that predict success in elite soccer correlate less with general IQ (Vestberg et al., 2012); sporting success is a weak signal, so this band sits with the site’s other elite team-sport athletes, not above them.
- Born
- November 5, 1988, Delhi, India
- Education
- Vishal Bharti Public School, then Saviour Convent School, Delhi, through Class 12; CBSE Class 10 (2004): 419 of 600
- Field
- Cricket (batting); India, Delhi and Royal Challengers Bengaluru
- International runs
- As of September 24, 2026: Tests 9,230 (30 hundreds); ODIs 14,941 (54 hundreds); T20Is 4,188 (1 hundred); 85 international hundreds
- Captaincy
- India Test captain 2014–2022 (68 Tests, 40 wins); captained the 2008 Under-19 World Cup winners
- Retirements
- T20 internationals on June 29, 2024; Tests on May 12, 2025; still plays ODIs and the IPL
- Honors
- Arjuna Award (2013); Padma Shri (2017); Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2018); ICC men’s Cricketer of the Decade (2011–2020)
- Circulating IQ figure
- No published test result and no credible figure circulates; “cricket IQ” means game sense, and a sponsor’s “Match IQ Award” rewards one decision in one match
What an IQ of 100–115 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Virat Kohli is
Virat Kohli was born on November 5, 1988, in Delhi. He attended Vishal Bharti Public School and moved to Saviour Convent School in ninth grade. His CBSE Class 10 result from 2004, a total of 419 of 600, is the one exam record we found that he has made public: Sportskeeda reported on March 30, 2023 that he had shared the marksheet on the Koo app. Per a June 2026 profile, he attended school through Class 12 and chose cricket over higher education; how closely school results track IQ is a separate and looser question.
Kohli made his List A debut for Delhi on February 18, 2006 and his first-class debut on November 23, 2006, against Tamil Nadu, aged 18. In 2008 he captained India’s Under-19 team to the World Cup in Malaysia, beating South Africa by 12 runs on the Duckworth–Lewis method in the March 2 final at Kuala Lumpur. He made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka on August 18, 2008, his T20I debut against Zimbabwe on June 12, 2010 and his Test debut against the West Indies at Kingston on June 20, 2011, a few months after India won the 2011 World Cup with him in the squad. He led India in Tests from 2014 to 2022: 68 matches, 40 wins, 17 defeats and 11 draws.
On November 15, 2023, in the World Cup semi-final against New Zealand at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, he made 117, his 50th ODI hundred, passing Sachin Tendulkar’s long-standing record. On June 29, 2024 at Kensington Oval in Barbados he made 76 off 59 balls, and was Player of the Match, as India beat South Africa by 7 runs in the T20 World Cup final; straight afterwards he said it was his last T20 game for India, ending with 4,188 runs from 125 T20Is. On May 12, 2025 he announced his retirement from Test cricket on Instagram, after 123 Tests, 9,230 runs at 46.85 and 30 hundreds; his last Test was the Sydney match that began on January 3, 2025. His 51st ODI hundred came against Pakistan on February 23, 2025, and his 54th, 124 against New Zealand on January 18, 2026, is his latest as of September 24, 2026.
Honors came in stages: the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri in 2017 and, on September 25, 2018, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India’s highest sporting honor (now the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna), presented by President Ram Nath Kovind; he was the third Indian cricketer to receive it. In the IPL, Royal Challengers Bengaluru won their first title on June 3, 2025, beating Punjab Kings by 6 runs with Kohli scoring 43 off 35 balls, and retained it on May 31, 2026, beating Gujarat Titans by 5 wickets with Kohli unbeaten on 75 off 42 balls and Player of the Match. As of September 24, 2026 he has not retired from ODIs or the IPL: his last listed ODI was against England on July 19, 2026, his 314th, and in May 2026 the ICC reported that he had reiterated his commitment to the 2027 World Cup.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed August 2026
Virat Kohli: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1988Born on November 5 in Delhi.
- 2004Sits the CBSE Class 10 examination and totals 419 of 600, a marksheet he shared himself in 2023.
- 2006–08First-class debut for Delhi on November 23, 2006, aged 18; captains India to the 2008 Under-19 World Cup title (March 2); ODI debut on August 18.
- 2011Part of India’s World Cup–winning squad; Test debut against the West Indies on June 20.
- 2013–18Arjuna Award (2013), Padma Shri (2017) and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2018, presented September 25).
- 2014–22India’s Test captain: 68 Tests, 40 wins, 17 defeats, 11 draws.
- 2023Makes his 50th ODI hundred, 117 against New Zealand in the World Cup semi-final in Mumbai on November 15.
- 2024Scores 76 off 59 balls and is Player of the Match in the T20 World Cup final on June 29, then retires from T20 internationals.
- 2025Retires from Tests on May 12 after 123 matches and 9,230 runs; Royal Challengers Bengaluru win the IPL on June 3.
- 2026Makes his 54th ODI hundred (124 against New Zealand, January 18); an unbeaten 75 wins the IPL final for Bengaluru on May 31; still plays ODIs as of September 24.
Why no figure circulates
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
No number for Virat Kohli’s IQ traces to a test, and the “IQ” attached to his name online is mostly cricket shorthand. Some quiz sites host user-made result pages under any name, and none is tied to him (where celebrity IQ numbers come from). “Cricket IQ” is the game’s phrase for reading a situation, praise for a decision or a piece of tactics rather than a measurement.
The clearest example of the word in use is a sponsor’s trophy. For IPL 2026 OpenAI partnered with five franchises, Royal Challengers Bengaluru among them, and its ChatGPT Match IQ Award, which trade press describes as recognizing the best on-field decision of a match, chosen by the coaching staff after the final ball, is the “IQ” in a clip on Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s YouTube channel titled “RCB vs SRH: ChatGPT Match IQ Award winner Virat Kohli | IPL 2026.” The trophy rewards one decision in one match; it is neither a score nor a test.
What batting demands explains why the praise is real and the number is not. Kohli said in a 2021 podcast interview published by Sporting Life that batting is “70% technical” by the time a match starts, the mind taking care of the rest because the work is done. Land and McLeod (Nature Neuroscience, 2000) found that a batsman sees the ball’s flight for little more than half a second, makes a predictive eye movement to where he expects it to bounce, and that a short latency for that first movement distinguished good batsmen from poor ones: trained anticipation, of the kind described in talent versus practice, not a reasoning score. Among Swedish soccer players (Vestberg et al., PLOS ONE, 2012), the executive functions that predicted goals and assists correlated less with general IQ. We found no comparable study of Kohli.
So the estimated IQ of Virat Kohli follows the record, read as this site reads other elite team-sport athletes who have no test. It places him at 100–115, the band given to Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Neymar, a step under Tom Brady’s 110–125, which is anchored to a Wonderlic-derived figure Kohli lacks, and well below the chess players: Viswanathan Anand and Gukesh Dommaraju, the site’s two Indian chess players, sit at 140–155 and 135–150 because a published rating gives a comparable record of a reasoning-heavy game, and cricket offers Kohli no equivalent. A score in the middle of his band is close to average, which describes the evidence, not a verdict on a career of some two decades.
How we read a number →Orientation, cross-checked against ESPNcricinfo, the ICC and news reports: birth date (Wikipedia: New Delhi; Wikidata: Delhi), schools, debuts, the 2008 Under-19 captaincy, Test captaincy (68 matches, 40 wins, 17 defeats, 11 draws), 85 international centuries (30, 54, 1), the 50th ODI hundred (November 15, 2023), the 2025 and 2026 IPL finals and the 2013, 2017 and 2018 honors. Wikidata Q213854 is the Indian cricketer, not a namesake.
Tests 2011–2025: 123 matches, 9,230 runs, average 46.85, 30 hundreds. ODIs 2008–2026: 314 matches, 14,941 runs, average 58.59, 54 hundreds. T20Is 2010–2024: 125 matches, 4,188 runs, average 48.69, one hundred. The main profile page returned HTTP 403; the totals match Wikipedia’s box dated July 19, 2026.
First: 54 ODI hundreds, the most in the format, and 14,797 ODI runs, second-highest, at that date; Kohli says that if he is playing he wants to carry on; four earlier World Cups, including the 2011 winners. Second: 76 off 59 balls and Player of the Match in the 2024 final, and his statement that it was his last T20 game for India. Neither mentions IQ.
Al Jazeera: Instagram announcement on May 12, 2025 (123 Tests, 9,230 runs, 30 centuries; 68 Tests as captain, 40 wins, 2014–2022); T20I retirement after the June 29, 2024 final (4,188 runs from 125 T20Is). Gulf News: President Kovind presented the Khel Ratna to Kohli and Mirabai Chanu on September 25, 2018, the third Indian cricketer to receive it; the 2025 piece reports the Class 10 total, 419 of 600. Sportskeeda: Kohli shared his 2004 CBSE Class 10 marksheet on the Koo app. StudyInternational: schools up to Class 12; chose cricket over higher education.
BCCI: he calls assessing the field very important and says experience helps in reading a match situation. Sporting Life: batting is 70% technical by the time a match starts; many call it 80% mental, which from a pressure point it is; the mind handles the rest once preparation is done. Neither mentions IQ.
OpenAI partnered with five IPL franchises including Royal Challengers Bengaluru; the award recognizes the most impactful (MediaNews4U: smartest) on-field decision of each match, decided by the coaching staff after the final ball; oEmbed data names Royal Challengers Bengaluru as the channel of the clip. India TV and MediaNews4U: iQOO, a smartphone brand newly entering India, appointed Kohli brand ambassador ahead of the iQOO 3 launch on February 25, 2020.
Land and McLeod (abstract via Europe PMC): a batsman views the ball’s flight for little more than half a second, makes a predictive eye movement to where it will bounce, and a short latency for that first movement distinguished good from poor batsmen. Vestberg et al.: 57 Swedish players took a design-fluency test; scores from 2007 predicted goals and assists two seasons later (r = 0.54, p = 0.006); these processes correlate with each other but less with general IQ. Neither tested Kohli or measured IQ.
None appears in Wikipedia, Wikidata, ESPNcricinfo’s statistics, the ICC and BCCI pages, or the Sporting Life interview, and we found no interview in which Kohli mentions taking an IQ test. The “IQ” beside his name in search results is “cricket IQ” praise and the sponsor’s Match IQ Award clip described above.
Bands used for comparison: Ronaldo, Messi and Neymar 100–115 (no IQ test); Tom Brady 110–125 (Wonderlic-derived); Viswanathan Anand 140–155 and Gukesh Dommaraju 135–150 (published Elo ratings).
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Virat Kohli, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
No specific IQ figure reliably circulates for Virat Kohli. Searches for “virat kohli iq level” and “what is the iq of virat kohli” return “cricket IQ” content, including Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s own IPL 2026 clip titled “ChatGPT Match IQ Award winner Virat Kohli,” which names a sponsor’s per-match award for the best on-field decision, not a measure of his intelligence.
No published IQ test result exists for Virat Kohli. We checked his Wikipedia biography and Wikidata item, ESPNcricinfo’s statistics, the ICC’s reports on his T20I retirement and 2027 World Cup plans, and interviews in which he talks about batting (BCCI, 2016; Sporting Life, 2021): none mentions an IQ test. The only “IQ” we found beside his name is “cricket IQ,” shorthand for game sense, and a sponsor’s Match IQ Award clip on Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s YouTube channel; that award is decided by the coaching staff after the final ball, not by a test. We found no interview in which Kohli mentions taking an IQ test.
There is no circulating figure to reconcile against, which is itself the finding: search for Virat Kohli’s IQ and what returns is “cricket IQ,” a phrase for game sense, and a sponsor’s Match IQ award for one decision in one match. Our 100–115 is not a correction to a published number; it is what the documented record alone supports.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Virat Kohli — frequently asked
What is Virat Kohli’s IQ?
No IQ test result has been published for Virat Kohli, and no credible figure circulates for him; the “IQ” attached to his name online is “cricket IQ,” shorthand for how he reads a game. Based on his documented record, including 85 international hundreds and 68 Tests as India’s captain, our estimate of his IQ level is 100–115.
What does “Virat Kohli IQ” mean in cricket?
“Cricket IQ” is shorthand for how a player reads a game, not a psychometric score. Royal Challengers Bengaluru titled a 2026 clip “ChatGPT Match IQ Award winner Virat Kohli”; trade press describes that award as recognizing a match’s best on-field decision, chosen by the coaching staff. It is a sponsor’s trophy, not a test. His estimated IQ level is 100–115.
Is “Virat Kohli iQOO” about his IQ?
No. iQOO is a smartphone brand. Trade press reported on February 20, 2020 that iQOO had appointed Kohli its brand ambassador ahead of the iQOO 3 launch in India on February 25, 2020, which is why the searches overlap. It has nothing to do with an IQ test or score.
Did Virat Kohli ever take an IQ test?
No result from any IQ test has been published, by Kohli or anyone else, and we found no interview in which he mentions taking one. The only exam result we found him make public is his 2004 CBSE Class 10 marksheet, 419 of 600; school marks measure schooling, not IQ.
How does Virat Kohli’s estimated IQ compare with Cristiano Ronaldo’s, Lionel Messi’s and Neymar’s?
Our estimate for Kohli is 100–115, the same band this site gives Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Neymar. None has a published IQ test, so each range is inferred from achievement, and sports success is a weak signal of general IQ. Tom Brady’s 110–125 sits a step higher because it is anchored to a Wonderlic-derived figure.
Is Virat Kohli a genius?
“Genius” is a label, not a measurement, and no test result exists to apply it to. The record shows exceptional, sustained performance in one sport: 85 international hundreds and 68 Tests as India’s captain. That measures a trained batting skill, so we do not extend it into a genius-level IQ; our band is 100–115.
Is Virat Kohli still playing, and what has he retired from?
As of September 24, 2026, Kohli has retired from T20 internationals (June 29, 2024) and Tests (May 12, 2025) but still plays ODIs for India and the IPL for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who won the 2025 and 2026 titles. In May 2026 the ICC reported his renewed commitment to the 2027 World Cup.
How does my IQ compare with Virat Kohli?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other athletes profiles, starting with Magnus Carlsen.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More athletes profiles — same field, same method
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Photograph by Super Festivals, CC BY 2.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Wolfgang Jekel (London Chess Classic, 2016), CC BY 2.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Frans Peeters (Tata Steel Chess Tournament, January 2024), CC BY-SA 2.0. Background removed for the portrait above.
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