Atreyo Mukhopadhyay
Cricket is a unique game. It’s a sport where individual and team goals coexist without coming in the way of each other. In no other team game are personal milestones celebrated so effusively. This is manifested in cricket’s obsession with records such as number of wickets taken by someone, runs, five-wicket hauls, centuries and many more. But somewhere, these figures converge with what the team requires and the collective entity benefits from the individual pursuits.
The fourth India-Australia Test showed this in no uncertain terms. From the Indian team’s point of view, at stake was and still is a berth in the World Test Championship final. What appeared to be a formality after the second Test is not a certainty anymore, with Sri Lanka suddenly breathing down India’s neck. Only a win in Ahmedabad or at least a draw/Sri Lankan defeat in the two Tests in New Zealand can guarantee India a place in the match to be played at The Oval in June.
Amid this team pursuit emerged talks of an individual milestone. Can Virat Kohli end his seemingly endless search for a 28th Test century? This was just another topic of discussion before the series began and with each passing day, it kept getting louder. It reached a crescendo when the fourth Test came closer, when it became clear that the Ahmedabad pitch would be a relief for batters after the first three Tests witnessed spin, spin and more spin. Batters of both teams struggled, Kohli included.
It led to a peculiar situation. On one hand was India’s quest for a win on a pitch where wickets were difficult to come by. On the other was Kohli’s quest for a century which had eluded him for 23 Tests, 41 innings and more than three years. It won’t be wrong to surmise that for a few days, the second became a bigger talking point. An individual goal became more important than the objective of the team the individual plays for! Is it possible only in India? That’s difficult to answer, but safe to say this is possible only in cricket.
Then, as it often does, the collective and individual goals merged. Kohli did get to that three-figure mark displaying abnormal restraint and patience and India did well to reach a position of strength despite conceding 480 in the first innings. They have not achieved the target yet and it may still be difficult to snatch a win, but they did what they could have after that big Australian effort with the bat thanks to Kohli’s marathon innings. Complementing the team narrative were contributions from almost everyone who came out to bat, most notably Shubman Gill and Axar Patel.
Kohli’s was an exceptional knock. How many No 4 batters spend an entire session in the middle without hitting a four or complete a century with just five hits to the fence? Kohli played according to the situation, shunned natural instincts, respected the restrictive lines bowled by the Australians, played an uncharacteristically high number of dot balls in the first session and most importantly, did not let the superstar’s ego come in the way of his team’s target. Had he got frustrated, India might well have ended short of 480. He knew the importance of his wicket and what it meant to the team. So there he stood like a hermit, even if it meant being un-Kohli like.
That was easier said than done. Going without a century for such a long time is not something Kohli was used to. He is a modern day run machine, which has to keep delivering the goods. Failure means he is under greater scrutiny. And mind you, in case of Kohli, not getting a hundred is considered to be a failure. There were six fifties and five 40-plus knocks in the period everyone was referring to. But because he is Kohli, those were no yardsticks of success. So the pressure on him was growing. Maybe that’s one reason he gave up Test captaincy.
Few mentioned that his failures in the ongoing series had a lot to do with the nature of pitches. Spin most of the times and excessive spin in Indore meant no batter from either side were able to come up with substantial knocks consistently. And when news broke that a flat surface was on offer in the final Test, everyone jumped onto Kohli. He has to nail it this time. If he can’t do that on a batting pitch, what’s his worth? Cricket experts and those who prefer discussing the game only over a cup of tea were unanimous. If Kohli doesn’t get a century in Ahmedabad, there is no point in hailing him as one of India’s all-time greats and one of the greats of his generation globally. That multiplied the load on him.
Absorbing this pressure and delivering when his team needed him the most, Kohli aptly demonstrated why and how individual and collective goals go hand in hand in cricket. The innings of 186 helped him turn a new leaf from a personal point of view and also helped his team reach a position which did not seem likely even at the lunch break on the fourth day. India are not in a winning position yet, but well placed to push the Australians through some anxious moments on the last day. Every member of the Indian team knows who and what made this possible. What was touted as an individual pursuit in the beginning ended up being a big boost for the team.