I have said this in the past, and I am saying it again. There can be no second Sachin Tendulkar in red-ball cricket. He was the greatest, and a genius of a very different magnitude. Having said that, Virat Kohli is also a once-in-a-generation player who must be hurting hugely after what happened against New Zealand. Much like Rohit Sharma, Kohli was not at his best. Or remotely close to it. But that’s where I think things will work for him and India in Australia.
A proud performer, he will go back to the drawing board and figure it out. Do we have anyone to replace him for a tour like Australia? The answer is an overwhelming NO. The truth is that he is still the best we have, and the person to bank on for the Australia series.
When Kohli failed in England in 2014, making just 134 runs in 10 innings, much was said about his frailties against the moving ball. It was also said that he isn’t the man for the next tour to Australia. His response was to score four hundreds Down Under, and take over the mantle of India’s batting great. Against New Zealand, he failed. And miserably. Much like the most of his teammates. And that’s where introspection must have started. He will hurt, and hurt a lot. Every champion has an ego and Kohli is no different.
He will know that the New Zealand series was a black mark for him as a great of the game. He will seek redemption and go back to basics. He is still incredibly fit, and if Tendulkar could do it in 2010 at the age of 37, there’s no reason why Kohli can’t rediscover his mojo in Australia.
In 2011-12, it was his first tour there with the senior team. And at Perth in January 2012, the Australians, as they often do, managed to get under Kohli’s skin. Not able to handle the heckling from spectators, Kohli descended to low-level combat – showing the middle finger to a particularly noisy section of the crowd after they called him a w***er. Such anger (mis)management was a feature of the early Kohli, and there were concerns it would get in the way of a full blossoming of his talent.
Two months down the line, it was a very different story. Kohli had just scored a match-winning 183 against Pakistan in Dhaka in a match that had ended close to midnight. The media, present in strength, were waiting for the Kohli soundbite before filing their match reports. At Mirpur, the press conference enclosure is on the opposite side to the pavilion, and one has to trek across the ground to get there.
On his way to the media centre, Kohli suddenly stopped, turned and started jogging towards a section of fans in the stands. Some 2,000 spectators had stayed back after the match and were still screaming “Kohli, Kohli” with gusto. Kohli, to the surprise of many present, decided to oblige them first with photographs and autographs before turning his attention to the media. He was fully aware, of course, of what he was doing, and he even apologised to the media contingent as soon as he entered the press conference room.
The transformation had begun.
I remember having a conversation with him sometime after India had lost the World Cup semi-final to New Zealand in Manchester in July 2019. He had been dismissed for one by an incoming Trent Boult delivery, a ball that television replays showed clipping the top of the stump. The decision could have gone either way, and it was unfortunate for Kohli and India that the umpire’s dreaded finger had gone up.
“Honestly, when we went to the World Cup, I had this very strong feeling in my heart that the team would need me in some game and it would be a chase,” he said. “I swear I had this feeling so strong that I am going to come not out at the end of the game and take India through that rough phase. And I really felt strong that was the game (semi-final vs New Zealand).
“When I walked out to bat, I knew this is the game, but maybe that was my ego talking because how can you predict something like that? You can only have a strong feeling, or maybe it was a strong desire of mine. But it did not turn out that way. My dismissal was really disappointing for me. This wasn’t because I hadn’t scored. It was because I had failed to contribute to the team, and we lost a match that we should have won.”
The situation is very similar. More than ever, India need him to raise his bat in Australia and make it count. And on his birthday, may I say that all of us hope that he will. Happy Birthday, and all the very best.
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