PHOTO FEATURE
Follow UsThe build-up for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is different this time. There’s no nasty sledging between the two parties. On the contrary, the Aussies are nice. They don’t want to egg on the Indian team.
Monty Panesar, the former England spinner, suggested the Aussies would do themselves a favor by not indulging their Indian counterparts in a verbal tussle.
The prime reason is one man. Virat Kohli. The most Aussie-like cricketer India have had who feeds on the energy of proving a point. There is never a dull moment when he is on the field and the cut-throat nature of the Aussie sports culture flows in perfect sync with Kohli’s symphony. Consequently, he lives rent-free in every cricket fan’s head, especially in the mind of the opponent.
That is the build-up of the BGT 2024/25. With a week left before the Perth Test, the Aussie newspapers are filled with front-page stories about Kohli, with the headlines in Hindi. The fact that he isn’t in the best of form doesn’t matter to them. It is VIRAT KOHLI in the town.
Being in the Aussie newspapers isn’t new for Kohli. In only his second Test Down Under, he was the talk to the town for the wrong reasons, flicking the finger at the SCG crowd. Only 23 years old then, the hothead responded that he wouldn’t take abuse from anyone, even if he had to cope with a fine for his gesture.
Only two Tests later, Kohli left it all behind in Adelaide, bringing up his maiden Test hundred.
India were 0-3 down in the four-match series. Australia had racked up 604 in their first innings. Kohli walked in at 87/4 with the venerated top order blown away for the umpteenth time in the series. From one of the most improbable situations, Kohli racked up a ton and capped it with an expected celebration — a punch in the air that looked to be targetted at the bowler in the illusion of angle and a brash utterance of few profanities.
When you announce yourself in such circumstances, there is little doubt that you belong at this level.
Australia continued to add different layers to Kohli’s career. Adelaide 2012 gave him a sense of belonging to Test cricket. Adelaide 2014 provided him with the first opportunity to lead his country in whites. Standing in for MS Dhoni, Kohli hammered twin tons in the match.
India lost, but Kohli’s charge toward a win, unprecedented for an Indian team on Australian soil, sowed the seeds for what would be the most glorious phase of India’s Test cricket under his captaincy for the next years.
Mitchell Johnson vs Virat Kohli was a theatrical experience.
It is the only series where this duo of unstoppable forces and immovable objects turned up against each other (they encountered only three balls in the Delhi Test in 2013).
In Adelaide, Johnson was worried for Kohli when he hit the batter's first ball on the helmet. In Melbourne, they showed no hostility was lost between them.
Johnson hit Kohli, trying to run him out at the striker’s end in the follow-through. He apologised, but Kohli wanted to pick up a fight. Edging the next ball through the cordon for four, he was in Johnson’s face.
“Can’t lip read, but you get the general gist. He wasn’t saying good morning,” told the commentator on air. Kohli went on to score 169 in the innings. This is why Aussies don’t want to egg him on.
Mitchell Johnson vs Virat Kohli in that series: 145 runs, 157 balls, 3 dismissals
2018
Kohli is older and wiser. He now lets his bat do all the talking.
The Indian captain missed out on in Adelaide for a change. No problem. He comes back in the second Test with a hundred.
123 off 257 balls. The second slowest of his 29 Test tons. No, it didn’t speak of struggle. The strike rate of 47.9 here stood for tackling the most challenging batting conditions of the series.
He was the only CENTURION of that Test.
To celebrate, he pointed at his bat and made a talking gesture out of it while chewing on his gum in Sir Viv Richardsque fashion. LET THE BAT DO THE TALKING!
Captain vs Captain. Neck and neck. Quite literally!
Paine was in Kohli's way earlier. Kohli remembered that and was, of course, keen to return the favour when Paine batted in the second innings.
There were no incidents in the first seven days of the series. But as warned earlier, something is always brewing with Kohli around.
2020/21
Kohli’s fourth tour of Australia and third as captain. But this one would be restricted to only one Test for the birth of his first child. And he looked keen to make a mark in his limited availability.
Back in Adelaide, Kohli prioritised defence, scoring only eight fours in his 74 off 180 balls. And then his vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane sold him down the river at the non-striker’s end.
Kohli denied himself plenty of cover drives to set himself up for another hundred synonymous with self-restraint. A second Pink Ball hundred, a fourth Test ton at Adelaide, a record seventh Test ton for an Indian in Australia and a big first-innings total for the team. So much for the taking and Kohli was denied all that in a run out that almost seemed unfair.
The less said about the second innings, the better. India capitulated to 36 all out and lost the Test in the blink of an eye. That was the end of Kohli’s tour, on the most sombre note possible and unimaginable.
India came back to clinch the series, but the Adelaide Test shouldn’t be the last link in Kohli’s legacy in a country so resonant with his style of cricket.
He is back Down Under for his fifth tour but at a critical moment in his career. He is 36 years old now, which comes with the pressure of continuing to perform for a spot in the side, much like the pressure he was in when he toured as a rookie in 2012.
India are coming off a rare whitewash at home and must be looking for a change. Kohli has averaged under 30 four times in the last five years. Many greats have finished their careers in Australia. It is a make-or-break tour for Kohli. And knowing him, if a tour of Australia cannot egg him on, then probably nothing else will.
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