The relationship that Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli share is best summed up by an incident that occurred on November 16, 2013, Tendulkar’s retirement day, and he himself had narrated it to me.
“As I reached the dressing room post the presentation ceremony and after 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 of 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 was 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.”
Today, as Tendulkar watches Kohli play his 300th ODI in Dubai, it seems the perfect moment for sport. Tendulkar’s wish has come true and Kohli has indeed carried India on his shoulders just as his hero had done for 24 long years.
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Kohli, it is well known, holds Tendulkar in very high esteem. From bowing to Sachin after his fifty against Pakistan in the high-voltage T20 World Cup 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 to me.
Tendulkar 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, 14 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 a World Cup, including three spectacular hundreds. As he steps out for his 300th game on Sunday, all that he needs to do is remember Tendulkar’s life philosophy – “Chase your dreams, for dreams do come true.”
To go a step further, India have started to dream. To see Kohli carried by Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant on their shoulders after winning the Champions Trophy would be the best frame that Indian cricket has seen in a long time. The story will then be complete. The perfect finale to what has been a perfect ODI career. And the manner in which Rohit Sharma, Kohli, Gill and the rest of the boys have played in Dubai, that is now a very real possibility. Even Tendulkar, may I say, could well be thinking the same.
Happy 300th Virat. And to many more.
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