Bharath Ramaraj at Centre of Excellence
How does it feel to watch Virat Kohli from close quarters? How does he go about his work of collecting singles, juxtaposed by imperious shots? To sumarise, you need to start with his routine before playing a defensive or aggressive stroke. With the bat placed on the right side of the shoulder, he looks around to observe the field placements.
That is followed by a twirl of the bat and rubbing a bit of dust with his shoes. When he doesn’t find the sweet spot of the bat, you end up witnessing shadow practice. He also has the habit of adjusting the grip of the willow. Although it was just a domestic game, Kohli’s intensity levels while fielding didn’t drop either.
His superlative effort in Delhi’s Vijay Hazare Trophy game against Andhra had all of those mannerisms. And there was something more: Kohli was intent on treating the opposition bowlers with utter disdain in the first Powerplay. On occasions, he charged down the track and could only connect thin air. At some other times, he drilled those lofts and drives, with the leather ball racing away to the boundary hoardings at the pace of knots. In all of this, he also gave chances while batting on 32 and then again on 97, with Sheikh Rasheed spilling a relatively easy one.
Once Delhi had laid down the foundation, he was back to what he always does best – taking quick singles from right under the noses of the fielders. As a subplot, there was a contest between Saurabh Kumar, the king of flight bowling, and Kohli; the former trying to bring Kohli forward and the champion batter attempting to use the depth of the crease.
Despite changing his tactics a little bit, Kohli still essayed the pull off KSN Raju and reached his ton off 83 deliveries with a shot into the downtown territories.
It wasn’t your archetypal Kohli experience as it also involved a few more risky shots than what you generally see. But while playing at a lower level, you don’t expect Kohli to always put a price on his wicket. There was still one missing jigsaw from Kohli’s hundred: The crackle sound of all those thunderous claps and screams from a boisterous crowd as it was played behind closed doors at the Centre of Excellence. Outside of muted claps from those few present at the stadium, the only sound that one could hear was that of lorries and buses moving around via the NH 44.
The larger picture to think of was Kohli gracing Vijay Hazare Trophy after more than 5,200 days, bringing domestic cricket back to the forefront of public consciousness.
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