Virat Kohli: Net Worth, Salary, Biography, Comparisons (2025)

There’s a reason a simple question — “Is Virat Kohli a billionaire?” — returns three different answers depending on the list you land on: the batter who holds the men’s record for ODI centuries is also the subject of 2025 wealth estimates ranging from ₹1,050 crore to ₹1,060 crore, and rival rankings that can’t agree on whether he or MS Dhoni is India’s richest cricketer. Separating the verifiable career facts from the financial estimates is the difference between understanding Kohli’s fortune and just repeating it.

Age: 36 years (born 5 November 1988) · Test Centuries: 29 · ODI Centuries: 50 · Estimated Net Worth: $127 million (2024) per Cricket365 (cricket news site) · IPL Salary: ₹15 crore (Royal Challengers Bangalore)

Six identity facts, one pattern: the biography behind the net-worth headlines is compact — Delhi-born, married since 2017, and tied to Royal Challengers Bangalore for essentially his entire IPL career.

Who is Virat Kohli’s ex?

Short answer: in any verified sense, there isn’t one. Kohli’s only widely documented relationship is with actor Anushka Sharma — and it ended in a wedding, not a breakup, in December 2017 (Britannica, reference publisher).

Who is Anushka Sharma?

• An Indian film actor who has starred in major Hindi-language productions
• Kohli’s wife since December 2017
• Frequently listed alongside Kohli in coverage of India’s most-followed celebrity couples

There is no widely verified relationship before Anushka in any credible biography, which is why the “ex” search leads to a dead end.

When did Kohli marry?

• Kohli and Anushka Sharma married in December 2017
• Both remain among the most followed Indian celebrities across social media

The implication: Kohli’s personal narrative is a single stable chapter, and the marriage is the only relationship that appears in his verified biography.

Is Kohli retiring?

Not from international cricket as a whole. Kohli stepped away from T20Is right after India’s 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup win, but he has not announced an end to his Test or ODI career.

Has Kohli announced retirement from international cricket?

• T20Is: retired, June 2024
• Tests: no retirement announced as of 2025
• ODIs: no retirement announced as of 2025

The June 2024 announcement was format-specific. Kohli remains on BCCI’s central contract list, which is reserved for active international players.

When will Kohli retire?

• No official date has been set for Tests or ODIs
• As of the latest season data, he has 29 Test centuries and 50 ODI centuries (ESPNcricinfo, cricket statistics outlet)

The honest answer is that only Kohli knows, and he hasn’t said. Retirement rumors resurface after every major tournament loss; so far, none has been confirmed by Kohli or the BCCI.

The pattern: Kohli is choosing format-specific exits on his own schedule, which keeps his ODI and Test brand value intact while he decides.

What was Kohli’s punishment?

Two incidents dominate the punishment searches: an IPL 2023 penalty and an IPL 2019 suspension. Neither involved corruption or doping — both were conduct-related.

What was the fine imposed on Kohli for the altercation with Gambhir?

• Fine: 100% of his match fee
• Incident: IPL 2023, after a physical altercation with Gautam Gambhir (IPL, official league site)

Why did Kohli get a penalty in IPL 2023?

• The IPL 2023 penalty was imposed after the exchange with Gambhir, under the league’s code of conduct
• In IPL 2019, Kohli received a one-match ban for a slow over-rate while captaining Royal Challengers Bangalore (IPL, official league site)

The takeaway: both penalties sit at the small end of cricket’s disciplinary scale — a fine and a one-match ban spread across hundreds of matches.

Who is the highest-paid cricketer in the world?

The short answer: it depends on which estimate you read. One clarification first: “highest-paid” means annual earnings, while “richest” means accumulated net worth. The lists that go viral are net-worth estimates, and none of them is an audited financial statement.

How does Kohli compare to Dhoni?

• Cricket365 (cricket news site) estimated Kohli’s net worth at $127 million in 2025, against $120 million for MS Dhoni — a gap of about 5.8% — and linked Dhoni’s wealth to IPL and BCCI earnings, endorsements, sports franchises, Dhoni Entertainment, and investments
• SportsDunia (cricket data publisher) estimated Kohli at approximately ₹1,060 crore and Dhoni at approximately ₹1,063 crore — a gap of about ₹3 crore — and placed Ajay Jadeja and Sachin Tendulkar ahead of both
• Published figures combine estimated career income, endorsements, investments, businesses, and assets rather than audited balance sheets

Two credible lists, two different winners. The practical takeaway: the gap between the two estimates is smaller than the margin of error, so the “richest cricketer” crown flips depending on the publisher.

Is Virat Kohli a billionaire?

• No — not by the global USD definition
• The most-cited 2025 estimate, $127 million, is roughly one-eighth of the $1 billion threshold
• ₹1,060 crore sounds enormous in rupees but converts to about $127 million — not $1 billion

The confusion is understandable: ₹1,060 crore is ₹10.6 billion, and headlines sometimes blur “billion” in rupees with “billion” in dollars. The two are not the same.

Who is richer, Elon Musk or Kohli?

• Elon Musk, by an enormous margin
• Bloomberg (financial data provider) has tracked Musk’s net worth above $200 billion
• Kohli’s reported $127 million is more than 1,500 times smaller

The comparison is less about cricket and more about market structure: Musk’s wealth moves with the companies he controls, while Kohli’s moves with a bat, a BCCI contract, and brand deals.

The pattern: whichever list you trust, Kohli sits in cricket’s top financial tier. The open question is whether he is first, and no published source can prove it.

The estimates are close enough that the wealth gap is smaller than the margin of error.

What is Kohli’s salary?

Kohli’s cricket income has two public, verifiable layers: the BCCI central contract and the IPL salary. Everything above that is endorsements, investments, and business interests.

How many houses does Kohli own?

• A home in Mumbai
• A farmhouse in Delhi
• Additional properties are not publicly documented

Real estate is one slice of a wider asset base. CareerIndia’s (Indian news portal) 2025 wealth profile links Kohli’s fortune to cricket contracts, IPL earnings, endorsements, his clothing brand WROGN, and investments.

What is Kohli’s BCCI contract salary?

• BCCI Grade A+ retainer: ₹7 crore per year (BCCI, India’s cricket board)
• IPL salary: ₹15 crore per season with Royal Challengers Bangalore (IPL, official league site)

Add the two fixed layers and Kohli earns about ₹22 crore a year from cricket before match fees and bonuses — the calculable core of the net-worth story.

Why this matters: the cricket salary is real, contractually documented, and verifiable. The wealth that fuels nine-figure net-worth headlines is not.

Kohli vs Dhoni vs Musk: side by side

Four comparison points, one pattern: the financial columns are estimates, and the two cricketers are separated by less than a single endorsement deal.

The pattern: the only certain numbers in this table are the “No” answers in the billionaire row; the financial columns are estimates with precise-looking labels.

Key dates in Kohli’s career

Five dates, one pattern: every milestone raised Kohli’s commercial value along with his cricket stature.

• 2008 — ODI debut against Sri Lanka (Britannica, reference publisher)
• 2011 — Won the ICC Cricket World Cup with India (BCCI, India’s cricket board)
• 2014–2015 — Took over India’s Test captaincy after MS Dhoni’s Test retirement (Wikipedia, collaborative encyclopedia)
• 2023 — Scored his 50th ODI century and passed Sachin Tendulkar’s all-time record during the ICC Cricket World Cup (ESPNcricinfo, cricket statistics outlet)
• 2024 — Retired from T20Is after the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup (ICC, cricket’s governing body)

The pattern: the 2023 record and the 2024 farewell bookend a decade in which Kohli converted runs into one of cricket’s most bankable brands.

What’s confirmed vs what’s unclear

Two lists, one distinction: facts you can verify against scorecards, and figures you can’t verify at all.

Confirmed facts

• Born 5 November 1988 in Delhi; married Anushka Sharma in December 2017 (Britannica, reference publisher)
• 50 ODI centuries and 29 Test centuries; the ODI mark is a men’s world record (ESPNcricinfo, cricket statistics outlet)
• Retired from T20Is after winning the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup (ICC, cricket’s governing body)
• Fined 100% of his IPL 2023 match fee after the exchange with Gautam Gambhir (IPL, official league site)

What’s unclear

• Exact net worth: 2025 estimates range from about ₹1,050 crore to ₹1,060 crore, with no audited figure (SportsDunia, cricket data publisher)
• Whether Kohli or Dhoni is richer: the two leading estimates disagree by about ₹3 crore (SportsDunia, cricket data publisher)
• Who is India’s richest cricketer overall: SportsDunia places Ajay Jadeja and Sachin Tendulkar ahead of both Kohli and Dhoni (SportsDunia, cricket data publisher)
• When Kohli will retire from Tests and ODIs: no date announced (BCCI, India’s cricket board)
• Future earnings: unreported endorsement deals and upcoming contract cycles will decide the next ranking (CareerIndia, Indian news portal)

What this means: the career facts are hard, the money facts are soft. Treat every “richest cricketer” headline as an estimate with a byline.

Kohli in his own words

Three voices, one message: the player talks about process, and a famous admirer sees the same obsession from the outside.

Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.

Virat Kohli

It’s not about being the best. It’s about being better than you were yesterday.

Virat Kohli, Instagram bio

Kohli plays with the same passion and determination that defined my generation.

Viv Richards, former West Indies captain, on Kohli

The paradox: a player whose reported net worth runs to nine figures talks about discipline, not dollars — which may be exactly why the dollars keep showing up.

Summary

The richest-cricketer debate is really a methodology debate wearing a headline. Kohli’s verified record — 50 ODI centuries, 29 Test centuries, a 2011 World Cup win, a 2024 T20 World Cup win — is extraordinary, and his reported net worth places him near the top of cricket’s financial rankings. But the exact order depends on estimates that move with exchange rates and endorsement announcements, not audited ledgers. For brands negotiating the next endorsement cycle, the choice is clear: back the player whose commercial value rests on independently verifiable records, and let the listicles fight over the rank.

Frequently asked questions