A true SENA-pati: The Kohli legacy

Can Virat Kohli ever put a foot wrong?

This was the thought that germinated in my mind in January of 2018, when Virat Kohli churned out hundred after hundred against a strong South African bowling line up in their home conditions. The question would persist for almost an year, as the captain cast aside all the devils of 2014 to score a staggering 590 runs in the Test series against England. While a series win remained elusive, his batting just rose to another level. It seemed like this man can never put a foot wrong. Kohli was in his prime- Tendulkar in the 1990s had now found his match. The next three years changed everything for Kohli and Indian cricket. The resumption of cricket after the Covid outbreak has seen India scale new heights, but it has been a roller-coaster for Virat Kohli. All the tempestuous events last year culminated in a shocking Tweet on 15 January 2022 with Kohli formally stepping down as Test captain of the Indian cricket team. 

 

After stepping down as IPL and T20I skipper, and being removed from ODI captaincy, this has come as a bolt from the blue. Suddenly, Kohli the captain- a sight all of us had grown accustomed to viewing- is history. What led to this impasse is a contested question, but must be a tangential concern for a lover of the sport. After all, the last couple of years have reinforced the truism that the world is essentially transient, and we must learn to move on. As Kohli himself wrote in his statement, 'Everything has to come to a halt at some stage and for me as Test captain of India, it is now.' The motor car has indeed come to a screeching halt, giving people time to pause and reflect on what has been a stellar tenure as captain. 

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Source: NDTV

                                         

The decision has doubtless left people confounded and at a loss for words. Instead of ascribing sinister motives or trying to unearth nasty conspiracy theories, I as a lover of the sport would prefer reliving the legacy of Kohli the captain. Because I firmly believe that his stint as Indian captain is a case study in how character seamlessly blends with match awareness to manifest a vibrant cricketing culture. This has lessons not only for the cricketing fraternity, but for humanity in general. Today, as India sits atop the ICC Test Rankings, having conquered almost all the cricketing nations over the last few years, it is our solemn duty to acknowledge the contributions of the man at the helm of everything.

KOHLI'S METEORIC RISE:

Of course, Kohli had sounded his bugle as Test skipper in 2014, with his heroics in Adelaide. The centuries he scored in both innings were top class, laced with his repertoire of shots, but most crucially coming in the aftermath of a phase when his batting had come for a lot of flak. 2014 was a decisive year for him in many ways, as his woeful performance in England, especially against Anderson outside the off-stump (an issue that has curiously resurfaced over the last couple of months) had threatened his position in the side. This was more so because Kohli's predecessor at Number 4 was no less than Sachin Tendulkar, and so expectations were legitimately thrust on him. Kohli had cultivated a messiah-like image for himself, with epithets like 'run-machine' and 'chase-master' following him wherever he went. In the aftermath of 2011 World Cup, he doubtless emerged as the pivot around whom the batting unit in limited overs cricket crystallised. He was in the league of the best ODI batsmen in 2012 and 2013. In Tests however, he still remained a 'prospect', and the England tour was a major setback. 

Then came Australia, and the sudden onus of captaining a team in a country that had never been conquered. Though he was a stand-in captain in Adelaide, there were signs of how he was made for it. He took to captaincy like a fish does to water, and that innings in Adelaide perhaps sealed his fate for the next seven years. This unflinching desire to 'win' from improbable situations would characterise Indian cricket right through his stint, and would perhaps meet its logical culmination in January 2021, when the fortress of Gabba was heroically breached. 

The unique aspect of Kohli's stint as Test captain is the manner in which his batting received an impetus on the back of his captaincy. His average soared over the next three years, as he almost sculpted the Indian team the way he would like it to be. 

THE FAST BOWLING REVOLUTION:

India always had the team to take on the best in the world, be it under Sourav Ganguly or MS Dhoni. But, one factor perennially arose: the inability to pick twenty wickets in foreign conditions. Under Kohli, this course correction was given paramount importance, and the results are there for everyone to see. A stat revealed by Hindustan Times suggests that bowlers under Kohli's captaincy averaged a miserly 25.34, this is lower than figures recorded by captains like Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd. 

The fast-bowling revolution ushered by Kohlli may not have any precedent in India's history. It is this battery of fast bowlers- Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Siraj and Shardul Thakur- that has proven to be instrumental in India's overseas performances. Pace bowling had always been India's achilles heel in foreign conditions, but as it stands today, it is India's most potent weapon. Kohli pumping up his fast bowlers from slip cordon will be a sight to cherish, one of his legacies that will take some doing to uphold. 

This revolution didn't occur at the expense of the spin bowlers, who have historically been the fulcrum of India's bowling unit. The fact that India didn't concede a single series at home under Virat Kohli is often overlooked. The reason behind this astounding performance was the phenomenal operation of Indian spinners- Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and lately, Axar Patel. Ashwin especially evolved an all-round colossus in the years 2015 and 2016, when he won man-of-the-series awards for fun. In total, Ashwin picked as many as 293 wickets in Kohli's tenure, and following a few quiet years, India's ace spin bowler once again seems to have struck a purple patch. Kohli's batting and Ashwin's bowling headlined India's dominance at home for a long time. Kohli masterfully struck the balance and worked around combinations with sagacity. Sometimes this resulted in controversies, like not playing Ashwin in a single Test match in England. But, almost everytime, his selection was justified. The strategy of playing five bowlers may have hit a roadblock of South Africa, but is a template that Kohli's successor will certainly consider. 

KOHLI LEADS HIS SENA:

Winning 40 matches out of 68 is staggering, as the win percentage of 58.8% is better than any Indian captain in history (who led the team in more than 40 test matches). The one metric that determines any captain's credentials is the team's performance in SENA countries. An embarrassing defeat against New Zealand in 2020- Kohli too having a forgettable series- means that the result for Kohli here was outright poor.

Then comes South Africa, and this is important, as the latest series defeat may have had a direct bearing on Kohli's decision. India went to South Africa in 2018 in high spirits- Kohli and Shastri confident of creating history. This was a South African unit boasting of the likes of Hashim Amla, AB De Villiers, Faf du Plessis and Dale Steyn- names that can frighten any opposition. India lost the first two tests, but won memorably at Johannesburg. Shami and Bumrah grew several notches in that series, and four years down the line, they remain India's most lethal fast bowlers. In spite of a series defeat, 2018 did offer glimpses of the much-vaunted 'intensity' and the ability to replicate overseas India's dominance at home. This is the reason India's defeat to South Africa this month stings badly. So, winning two out of 6 test matches in South Africa- but not clinching a series- this was perhaps a mixed bag. 

 Coming to England- the 2018 series- inspite of Kohli's heroics- didn't inspire much confidence as India lost by a margin of 4-1, worse than that of 2014. Though the difference between the two units wasn't as stark as the margin would suggest, gaping holes were evident in the batting line-up, and when India arrived in England in 2021, that is exactly where change was evident. This was the series in which Rohit Sharma announced himself as a classy Test match opener. In the third Test match at the Oval in London, Rohit scoring one of the better Test hundreds under pressure, and helped India secure an unassailable 2-1 lead. Though Kohli's batting in this series (with one Test match remaining) has been below-par, the energy he brought to the field (especially at Lords) made a massive difference. 

However, the most incredible achievements for Kohli and his team came in Australia. Two consecutive series win Down Under is an enviable record. As I type this, England has been thrashed 4-0 by the same Australian team, showing just how colossal an achievement that is for India. The 2018 series was played in the shadow of the 'Sandpaper-gate scandal' that had rocked Australian cricket, depriving them of the services of Steve Smith and David Warner. The series victory here was one to savour, but it was 2020-21 that stands out in all respects for the breath-taking sub-plots leading to the heist at Brisbane. Though the credit for the superb come-from-behind win must deservingly go to Ajinkya Rahane's superb leadership, the spirit shown by the team had Kohli's energy written all over it. 

AN INDELIBLE LEGACY:

Now, to sit and evaluate the career of a great like Kohli is not easy. Stats clearly project him as one of the greatest captains of all times, but Kohli's impact was far beyond enabling his team to win games. His role in promoting the cause of Test cricket at a time when formats keep getting condensed is noteworthy. The brilliant 79 he scored in the first innings at Cape Town this week is an assurance that he will continue to be an ambassador of the longest format for some time to come. 

A drive to win can be seen in his eyes.  Victory at all costs seems to be his guiding motto. 

But, Kohli's character transcends the cricket field. His transformation as a human being has been equally sensational. While aggression has defined him as a cricketer, he has matured and blossomed as a human being after becoming the skipper. His altercations with Steve Smith and the Australians in 2017 might have made one feel that a permanent divide had been created between him and this opposition. However, in the 2019 World Cup, Kohli silenced the crowd booing at Smith following his return to international cricket. An interview with Boria Majumdar is also doing the rounds, wherein Virat Kohli explains the importance of not getting carried away emotionally by either victory or defeat, as both are integral parts of the game. From Kohli the brash youngster to Kohli the  semi-philosopher, it's been a phenomenal transformation, and we ought to acknowledge it. He carries his aggression on his sleeve, and his cricketing philosophy clearly seems to be 'victory in the mind'. As captain, he played mind-games with the opposition, that often didn't yield immediate results, but that belief in his team-mates and the relentless pursuit of victory makes him a cut apart from many other past captains.  Kohli the captain offered a lot of life lessons to youngsters picking up the game, and regardless of his customary denunciation of  the 'external noise', his following has grown immensely over the years. He remains the most celebrated athlete in India today. His role in inspiring budding cricketers will be ascertained in the days to come. 

So, Kohli has called time as a captain, and now every Indian cricket fan prays for his longevity as a batsman. Comparisons with Sachin Tendulkar- whose batting took an upward trajectory after renouncing captaincy- are being made and as Harsha Bhogle also rightly says, it is important that Kohli is in a happy space after all that has happened over the last couple of months. For Indian cricket certainly does require his services, not only as a batsman, but also as a thinker and strategist. There is no doubt that the succeeding captain, young players and the coach will rely heavily on his insights over the next few years. 

As we witness an epochal transition in Indian cricket, it is worthwhile introspecting a little on the condition of the sport today, not only in our country, but worldwide. Quinton de Kock recently gave up Test cricket, at the age of 29, citing his family issues. His teammate from South Africa, Chris Morris too retired at the age of 34. A couple of years back, Glenn Maxwell had taken a break from cricket for a few months citing mental health issues. Virat Kohli himself has been open about the issues arising out of living in bio-bubbles. Covid has certainly damaged careers and reputations. What sets India apart is its population. Naturally, social media is flooded with people from the subcontinent and judgments are made on almost everything, from a dropped catch to a missed century. Switching off from social media is also a difficult proposition for players, who to would certainly have the desire to stay connected with people around them. This curious dichotomy has rocked international cricket, and while Virat Kohli's decision may not be directly a fallout of it, the 'pressure' he has faced over the last couple of months stem from this rot in our discourse. Journalists line up to ask the most vulgar questions, searching for a triggering headline, and praying for a fresh controversy. This 'vulture journalism' has meant that there is almost no concern for the repercussions such talk can have on any player, leave alone the captain of an international team. Yes, they may be phenomenally rich and influential, but we must realise that beyond all their glamorous celebrity lives, they are human beings with emotions and a quest for inner peace. This is where the responsibility of a journalist or a fan of the team becomes paramount. Exercising your 'right to know' doesn't mean infringing upon the lives of a sportsperson and making preposterous judgments on them. Yes, criticism is necessary, but as long as it is dignified. The name-calling and purposeful politicisation of sport today is definitely a matter of concern. 

Our comments and opinions- in today's digitised world- inadvertently hamper the emotional well-being of sportspersons. Indians, while exultant in moments of triumph, find it difficult to digest losses. We must learn to stand behind our players, come what may. Cricket is after all simply a sport, and expecting a team to win every game is often imposing abnormal standards on ordinary human beings. Something on those lines has happened with Kohli's career as a captain. As noted right in the beginning, there was a time when failure simply didn't exist in his vocabulary. Now that he is going through a century drought and a gentle dip in form, there is cacophonous noise over his batting and captaincy. I I salute the legendary captain for his unparalleled performance as a captain, both at home and overseas. His ability to absorb pressure- both on the field and outside it- would be hard to replicate. India was fortunate to have received his services as a skipper. Jai Hind!