PLAYER DIARIES
Follow Us“Has any Australian ever been so massively and minutely watched, had their every deed, mood and musing pored over? The sense of imminent event accompanied him everywhere, off the field as well as on, and still does, despite the passage of six years since he represented Australia.”
What Gideon Haigh said about Shane Warne stood the test of time. Replace ‘Australian’ with ‘Indian’ and the same, word for word, applies to Virat Kohli.
Debuting at the confluence of cricket’s three formats and peaking soon after, hardly any batter comes close to matching Kohli in the enormity and longevity of achievements.
Kohli enjoyed the peakest of peaks from the end of 2014 till 2019. He was registering three figures almost every time he played an ODI, scoring tons in Tests across continents - seven of these doubles, including four in four consecutive series. He was single-handedly carrying a mediocre batting lineup in T20 World Cups and notching hundreds in 15-over games for RCB, even with stitches on his webbing.
During this period, Kohli averaged an unprecedented 63.4 across formats at the international level. His average across three formats ranged between 58 and 69, demonstrating unparalleled consistency every time he took the field.
“No one can be good everyday unless you are Virat Kohli,” retorts a member of the support staff who saw him closer than anyone else during this period. There might not be a halo above Kohli’s head, but what followed was an inevitable aura of invincibility. He was, by now, King Kohli.
The highest of highs were followed by the lowest of lows. 2020 was a forgettable year for an entire generation of humans living on the planet. It also kickstarted a period where Kohli was reduced to a mere mortal.
It was when Kohli was on strike that the bowlers were choosing to unleash a jaffa. Or the pitch seemed to misbehave. Or a rank long-hop induced a rare mistimed shot.
For a hefty two and a half years, Kohli averaged 35.6 across formats. Not outrightly paltry but still inadequate for someone in the running for the best cricketer of his generation.
From scoring 53 hundreds at the top level (48 international and 5 IPL) from 2014 to 2019, Kohli spent a century-less 30 months. From being at the top of the pyramid for six years, Kohli wasn’t even among the top 50 batters in this period on numbers.
The king had lost his throne. The crown was slipping away from him as well.
What never changed was the quality for which Kohli is admired the most among his colleagues: his intensity on the field. Even while he was not scoring big runs with the bat, his presence in the field was enough to give the opposition ‘fifty overs from hell’. Give a bowler 10 Kohlis in the field and every target will seem defendable. Even a dead and buried game like RCB’s Eliminator against the Royals was brought to life when the batters took on Kohli’s legs and throwing arm.
It was this work ethic or sheer blessings of the many fans he had earned that, like a flip of a switch, Kohli was back to his usual self. First came the maiden T20I hundred against the run of play versus Afghanistan in September 2022 which ended his century drought. And then came the innings against Pakistan a month later in the previous T20 World Cup that stamped his greatness for eternity. A year later, averaging a shade under 100 in the tournament, Kohli turned the fifty-over World Cup into a celebration of his achievements. The king was back.
In a growing list of his conquests as a batter, the one asterisk thrown at him by his critics was his strike rate against spin in the shortest form of the game. And not for unfair reasons. For four IPL seasons from 2020 to 2023, Kohli was striking at a lowly 108.2 against spin in general and under a run-a-ball against finger spin in particular.
The aura of unlimited fandom is not the only thing Kohli shares with Warne. “If you don’t feel switched on, pick a fight”. This is the mantra Warne lived by. It is the mantra that is not too far from how Kohli gets his adrenaline rush. For years now, opposition coaches have opined on the futility of sledging Kohli, who, when on the field, has celebrated almost every wicket like a Formula One driver jumping out of the car after winning his maiden grand prix.
In his head, Kohli had picked a fight before he entered IPL 2024. A fight against those who questioned his place in the side for the T20 World Cup. With a point to prove, Kohli walked out to bat in most games as if he had already been in the middle for a while. In no other season has he averaged more and been more severe during the first 10 balls of his stay.
After a few games of Kohli carrying RCB yet again, question marks around his place in the side were largely dead. Meanwhile, eight games into the season, Kohli picked yet another fight. This time for a comment on air questioning his strike rate against spin.
Hellbent to prove every naysayer wrong, Kohli turned his game against spin around as if there was a switch he had access to all this while but was waiting for the right occasion to turn it on. And that switch was nothing else than a forward-defense-like routine for T20 globetrotters: the slog sweep. “I've brought out the slog-sweep to the spinners. I know I can hit it because I've hit it a lot in the past,” said Kohli after the match-winning knock against Punjab. It was the same shot with which he nearly turned a hopeless Test match in Adelaide almost a decade ago.
By taking criticism personally, Kohli was able to overcome the fear of getting out. “I think it just takes a bit more conviction and take out that thought that props up: 'what if you get out”, admitted Kohli after the same game. Shedding the fear of getting out, he returned with a strike rate of 155.5 against spin in the last six games. More than the most he has ever managed in an IPL season, which is 153.3 in his first season in 2008.
While his performance in Tests over the coming years will also be a factor in the final verdict on Kohli 2.0, the stage is set for him to close the conversation on his T20 credentials for good. If there has to be one GOAT for the T20 World Cup, it will be tough to look beyond Kohli. As things stand, Kohli is averaging a scarcely-believable 81.5 in T20 World Cups and is the highest run-getter despite batting fewer innings among those in the top-8. He is the only batter to be the highest run-getter in multiple T20 World Cups. And though he has never struck at more than 120 against spin in any edition, Kohli 2.0 seems stubbornly set to break the norm.
Given how possessive Indian cricketers are about their spot, it would be foolish to indicate whether this will be the last time Kohli will walk out for India in a T20 World Cup. But it can be said with absolute certainty that we are closer to the end than from the beginning. So enjoy it while it lasts.
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