Virat Kohli snarled, fumed, cussed and even swore when he felt the need to, but his fiery approach made him a wonderful motivator and a darling of the masses
Virat Kohli celebrates an Australian wicket during the fourth Test in Melbourne last December. Pic/Getty Images
Virat Kohli didn’t just flirt with greatness, he smashed every obstacle in his way to gatecrash into cricketing stratosphere. Not because he chased it or pursued it or was obsessed with it, but because his genius compelled him to do so. His inner steel and fire and passion ensured that even if that wasn’t his objective, greatness became his final destination.
Statistically, Kohli signed off as India’s fourth-highest Test run-getter. The three men ahead of him in that chart also scored more Test centuries than the country’s most successful captain, but Kohli doesn’t suffer in comparison with Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid or Sunil Gavaskar.
Ready for any challenge
Single-handedly, with his country’s cricketing fortunes at a crossroads following the retirements within 20 months of Dravid, VVS Laxman and Tendulkar (in that order), he made sure that not only were India’s Test fortunes constantly on the upswing, they reached heights that hadn’t been scaled previously.
While the volume of his mellifluous runs and the impact they had on India occupying the No. 1 position in Test status for extended spells can never be exaggerated, Kohli’s influence on Test cricket is far beyond that. Within two years of his debut in the Caribbean in June 2011, he made drastic lifestyle changes, convinced that a healthy body would lead to a healthy and fresh mind which would in turn translate to smart decision-making.
He instilled in his colleagues, first as a young tyro and then as a seasoned leader, the uncompromising need for physical fitness. Because he led by example, he didn’t have to demand of others what he himself didn’t do, much like Rohit Sharma and his mantra of no-holds-barred aggression in limited-overs cricket when he succeeded Kohli as the captain. Every inch the new-age Indian who hated settling for second-best, Kohli forged a pace attack for the ages on the back of his conviction that for India to win matches, and series, away from home, an overreliance on spin would be far from sufficient.
Kohli could, and did, go from street fighter to seasoned statesman in the bat of an eyelid, following his heart even if it meant he didn’t always endear himself to the traditionalists. He snarled and fumed and cussed and swore when he felt the need to, unapologetically, but he was also a wonderful motivator and a darling of the masses, both in India where they had never seen anything like him and notably in Australia, where they have celebrated him as the most Australian of all non-Aussie sportspersons.
Those fab five years
A spectacular five-year run between the end of 2014 and 2019, when he blasted 21 centuries in 55 Tests at a grand average of 63.65, coincided with India’s ascent as the No. 1 Test team and saw for Kohli rack up a win percentage of 58.82, comfortably the best for any India captain who has occupied the Test throne for a substantial period of time.
But impressive as all these numbers are, they don’t do justice to the phenomenon that Kohli is. India can take pride in the fact that it was in their colours that he strode the cricketing world like a colossus for more than a decade and a half.
30
No. of Test centuries by Kohli
07
No. of double centuries smashed by Virat Kohli
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