Author: Boria Majumdar

It was rain in Kolkata that granted Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) a lifeline in the match against Punjab Kings. And it was rain last night in Bengaluru that robbed them of the little chance they had of making the play-offs. It was a tame end to a campaign that never really took off. KKR, I must confess, were one of my teams for the top four. A middle order with Andre Russell, Rinku Singh and Ramandeep Singh, and the spin duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy – you could almost sense it was a good side. Harshit Rana and…

Boria Majumdar It was mid March and Abhijit Deshmukh had called to ask me if we should cover the Doha Diamond League from on ground. In a startup, the thing is you always want to do more. And the question always is how much is too much? With the IPL playoffs round the corner (at that point, the break wasn’t envisaged), my first thought was ‘Will anyone watch?’ But then the Revsportz idea of covering every sport from on ground resurfaced. I knew questions would be asked of me with the financial year end round the corner, but still decided…

Is Neeraj Chopra the greatest-ever Indian athlete? Is it premature to say so? Can he be compared to the likes of Abhinav Bindra, Sachin Tendulkar, PV Sindhu, Viswanathan Anand, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and, finally, Major Dhyan Chand? Is such a comparison fair? I think the debate might have been settled tonight. The only thing that he was missing was the 90-metre throw. Paris had hurt him. He stayed resilient, went and worked the hardest, picked out Jan Zelezny as coach and hit the magic mark of 90.23m in Doha. That he didn’t win, courtesy Julian Weber’s monstrous final throw,…

In a video that went viral at the end of India’s 2020-21 tour of Australia, the BCCI put out what captain Rahane had said to his teammates at the end of the Brisbane victory. What stood out for us are the two men Rahane singled out. He congratulated Kuldeep Yadav for his work ethic and said to the left-arm wrist-spin bowler that he would soon get an opportunity. Kuldeep was the only member of the squad who hadn’t played a Test match in Australia. He also thanked young Kartik Tyagi for his contribution in the nets, mentions that showed Ajinkya’s…

Boria Majumdar He isn’t a part of the Indian set-up at the moment. Nor was he a part of the IPL to start with. For the record, Shardul Thakur went unsold in the auction and was thereafter drafted in by LSG as replacement for Mohsin Khan. From being the toast of the nation to being out in the wilderness, Shardul has seen it all. And yet, he never gave up. “Yes, I felt bad when I wasn’t picked for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy,” he told me. “For the first two days, it seemed all was lost. But then, I asked myself…

It was around 2pm on January 18, 2021, and the enormity of what India were up against on day five at The Gabba was slowly dawning on us. Australia had set India a target of 328 and, on a wearing pitch, were overwhelming favourites to close out the series 2-1. The ball had started to misbehave from the cracks, and it was going to be a serious test for India’s batsmen against the likes of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon. Maybe it was on an impulse that I sent a message to Virat Kohli. How good…

Dilip Vengsarkar navigated some tricky times during his tenure as chief selector. Long before that, after a storied career with the bat, he had set about helping the board put in place a robust system for identifying young talent. A certain Virat Kohli was one of the beneficiaries. In this exclusive chat with Boria Majumdar, RevSportz’s editor-in-chief, Vengsarkar looks back at his first impressions of a young Kohli and the hunger that made him special. Boria: When you first saw Virat, how did you identify that this guy was special? What made you introduce him to the international circuit? Dilip…

It was around 8 am that Ravichandran Ashwin and I first spoke on the phone. About five to seven minutes into the conversation, I questioned him on Virat Kohli, and if he felt there was a possibility of him continuing in Test cricket. Ashwin flipped it back to me and asked what I felt. We both agreed that Test cricket would be poorer without Kohli around. At that point, neither of us knew that by 12 noon, Kohli would make it public. That he was giving up playing in whites and calling time on what has been a stellar career.…

Shardul Thakur has played some of his best Test innings under Virat Kohli the Test captain. One of the Test matches that immediately come to mind is the fourth Test of the 2021 India versus England series in England. With the series tied 1-1, there was everything to play for, going into the contest at The Oval. With India reeling at 127/7, Shardul walked out to bat and scored a brilliant 57 of 36 balls. It allowed India to get to 191 and give Kohli and his team something to bowl at. Shardul then followed it up with another stroke-filled…

Have we seen the last of Virat Kohli the Test bat? The answer is yes. In an emotional message, he has called it a day from Test match cricket. While there was news that the BCCI was trying to get him to change his mind, especially with Rohit Sharma also having just retired, the truth is that Kohli had decided and there was no turning back. Now we know that it was the Sydney Test last January that was our final sighting of Kohli the Test batter. Did he still have the game to score runs in difficult conditions in…