A show of intent only Kohli was capable of
Kohli's relentless intensity and adaptability redefined Test cricket, with remarkable performances, showcasing his unmatched talent
The eyes that have never lied. Piercing, brooding, simmering , calculating -- working out scenarios before they even play out. Beneath the helmet visor, shading a perfectly manicured beard, Kohli staring at the ground intensely, waiting , was a lasting image for over a decade.
Every batter is as good as his last innings, but with Kohli — as was the sentiment with Sachin Tendulkar — there was something more. Intent wasn’t part of the cricket’s glossary of terms till Kohli made it mandatory with his steadfastness. Good games or bad, Kohli never lacked it. He was all heart, all in, all the time.
Test cricket benefited from it the most, particularly in the grandest of settings, against the most unplayable bowlers. Home or away, Australia would always light a fire in Kohli.
The 2012 tour first showed a glimpse of that hunger when Kohli scored his maiden hundred at Adelaide in an innings where no one else scored more than 35. Come 2014-15, Kohli made 692 runs at an average of 86.50. Among India batters, only Sunil Gavaskar has scored more runs (774, against West Indies in 1971) in an away tour. Nowhere else was Kohli’s charm offensive more palpable than at Adelaide, where he is the only Asian among four non-Australians to have scored more than 500 Test runs, others being Vivian Richards (552 runs), Jack Hobbs (601 runs) and Brian Lara (610 runs).
Kohli was supernatural at times, but also deceptively human. England kept reminding us of his mortality; with the seam and swing of James Anderson and Stuart Broad in 2014, he made 134 runs in 10 innings, but persevered. Which is why his aggregate of 593 runs during the 2018 tour of England ranks as one of the most memorable individual turnarounds of all time.
Of particularly vintage value is the 79 at Cape Town, 2022 as well. Some context here; not known to the world, this was to be Kohli’s last Test as captain, that too after taking on the entire Indian cricket board in a game of Truth and Dare. A back spasm had laid him low for the second Test, his form deserting him long before, but Kohli strutted out to bat as if his life depended on it. This wasn’t Kohli at his flowing best, but the intensity was no less riveting.
To watch Kohli reach for the depths of his technique, fending off South Africa in a moving display of individual pride was probably one of the highs of Test cricket at a time many were questioning its relevance.
Lodged in between is also the phase that saw Kohli score a staggering seven double hundreds, with only Lara (9), Kumar Sangakkara (11) and Don Bradman (12) ahead of him in the all-time list.
“That alone makes him the player of the decade,” MSK Prasad, who was chief of selectors when Kohli was captain, told HT. That six of those seven double hundreds were scored within 18 months is a resounding reminder of Kohli’s appetite for runs.
His first double-hundred in Tests came against West Indies in North Sound in July 2016. By December 2017 he had six double hundreds in 34 innings, making it the second-most prolific run of 34 Test innings in terms of double-hundreds after eight by Don Bradman, starting with the 1930 Ashes.
Nobody could explain this windfall. The bowling hadn’t suddenly gone bad, the pitches weren’t all benign, Kohli just kept scoring on demand, at home and away.
“In 2016, he got 972 runs in the IPL. After a week, he went to West Indies from the IPL and got his first double hundred without hitting a single ball in the air. That speaks volume about his adaptability. He has been phenomenal when it comes to Test cricket,” said Prasad.
Pit this against the near three-year lull in hundreds between December 2019 and February 2023 and there is bound to be an alternative perspective explaining this jarring gap. No one apart from Kohli could have got that long a run in Indian cricket. But it was also not based solely on a hunch or that feeling that prevents elite athletes from giving up. Cold, hard numbers drove up hope as well.
Preceding that lull was a sensational run between 2016 and 2018 where he scored 3596 runs in 35 Tests at an average of 66.59. Year wise, the averages look even more daunting: 75.93 in 2016, 75.64 in 2017, 55.08 in 2018, and 68.00 in 2019.
And since we are talking about a man whose batting is intrinsically linked to his sense of responsibility as captain, it was no coincidence that between 2015 and 2017, Kohli led India to nine consecutive Test series victories, equalling Ricky Ponting’s record.
There was no giving up.
Till he felt it, that is. There was very little indication though. On a Perth pitch last winter, Kohli made India swoon to yet another hundred and everyone thought all was again well. The bristle was back, as was the appetite for contest. With a tour of England lurking around the corner, surely Kohli could have been convinced to stay on. Or so it seemed.
Perhaps his heart was no longer in it -- and given the brand of cricket he plays, if that were true, there was no way the 36-year-old could have been the Virat Kohli India were desperately seeking.
