The relationship that Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli share with each other is best summed up by the following incident on this very day a decade ago. It was November 16, 2013, Tendulkar’s retirement day, and he himself had narrated it to me.
“As I reached the dressing room post the presentation and post my speech and was sitting all by myself Virat walked up to me,” he said. “I could see tears in his eyes and he came up to me to give me something very special. He said his dad had given him this (a family heirloom for good luck) and he always wondered who he would give this to. It had to be someone very special and he thought me worthy of it and handed it to me before touching my feet as my younger brother. I was speechless. I held him tight and said arre tu yeh kya kar raha hain. Tujhe yahan nahi, yahan hona chahiye. (What are you doing touching my feet? You should be giving me a hug). Thereafter I couldn’t say a word for I felt choked with emotion. A lump had started to form in my throat and I asked Virat to leave knowing I would burst into tears if I tried speaking more. This was a gesture I can never forget and I wished Virat all the success in his career.”
On Wednesday night, as Tendulkar watched Kohli make his 50th ODI hundred at the Wankhede, it was the perfect moment for sport. Tendulkar’s wish had come true and Kohli was carrying India on his shoulders just as his hero had done for 24 long years. The hundred followed by the bow – cricket was at its very best in Mumbai during the World Cup semi-final. Respect and admiration, adulation and love, and the master hailing the protégé for his ‘Virat’ achievements.
Kohli, it is well known, holds Tendulkar in very high esteem. From bowing to Sachin after his fifty against Pakistan in the high-voltage World T20 game in Kolkata in March 2016, to always giving the legend his due, Kohli is all humility whenever he has been asked about Tendukar. “It is unfair on him, you know,” he had once said. “He has served Indian cricket for 24 years and has played some incredible innings for the country. To play for such a long time itself is special. It is not fair on him to be compared to anyone. When we were growing up, Sachin would just play some shots which left us all in awe. He could just stand and hit the fast bowlers for six straight over the sightscreen. None of us had seen such stroke play and I used to emulate his actions at home.”
Tendukar, on the other hand, has effusive praise for Kohli. I had once asked him if what Sir Donald Bradman had said about Tendulkar to Jessie, his wife – “I have not seen myself play, but seeing this boy play, I feel he is the closest to how I played the game” – applied to his impression of Kohli. In other words, did Tendulkar ever tell Anjali that here was one cricketer who played very much like him?
Sachin, measured and composed, had this to say. “No, I did not tell Anjali this, but I can tell you Virat has great peripheral vision when he is batting. He can read the game very well, try and make sense what can happen five or six overs later and plan accordingly. People may think he is flashy and flamboyant but he has a very solid core and that’s what makes him the player that he is. He is willing to work really hard on his game and always relishes a challenge, traits that make him a very good cricketer.”
At one level, the two legends come together. Both supremely confident athletes, they have never cared for outside noise and have tremendous faith in their ability to work the hardest and take accountability for both their successes and their failures. And, needless to say, India is proud and fortunate to have had them both play for the tricolour.
Sachin had to wait 22 years to lay his hands on the World Cup. Kohli was then a young teammate who carried his idol on his shoulders at the Wankhede on April 2, 2011. Now, 12 years down the line, the baton has passed. It is Kohli who is the Pied Piper. The new master who has scored more than 700 runs in this World Cup, including three spectacular hundreds. As he travels to Ahmedabad for the match of his life on Sunday, all that he needs to do is remember Sachin’s life philosophy – “Chase your dreams, for dreams do come true.”
To go a step further, India has started to dream. To see Kohli carried by Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj on their shoulders, in front of Tendulkar, would be the best frame that Indian cricket has seen in a long time. The story will then be complete. The perfect end to what has been a perfect World Cup. And the manner in which Rohit Sharma, Kohli and the rest of the boys have played, that is now a very real possibility. Even Sachin, may I say, thinks the same!