Cricket, a team sport, celebrates individual milestones and the two that matter most are zero and hundred. After 11 years of international cricket Kohli stands at the latter, a mountain climbed before him by 11 illustrious Indians in 90 years of Test cricket.
Virat Kohli during a practice session ahead of the 1st Test between India and Sri Lanka at IS Bindra PCA Stadium in Mohali (PTI)
It is a landmark he would be satisfied with but not overly happy about. Kohli is a serial achiever consumed by the pursuit of excellence, and 100 Tests is a pit stop in a longer journey. For him, there are miles to go, more runs to be made and more victories to be chased. If asked how he feels, he is likely to downplay his hand and repeat his desire to continue doing his best for India.
On occasions such as this, standard lines are spoken to sound suitably humble. With Kohli, however, face value is also the real deal. From his press conferences and media utterances we know he is not one to hold back and is never shy to speak his mind. Opponents, critics and even BCCI biggies have realised he is disturbingly honest. His predecessor, MS Dhoni, was a reluctant celebrity who lived behind carefully placed curtains. Kohli is the opposite—open, unapologetically direct and a performer who loves the stage.
Kohli the cricketer can’t be reduced to numbers but the number 100 comes close to defining him. To him, cricket is 100% commitment and effort. He doesn’t know half measures. I remember Waqar Younis looking at Kohli’s workout videos and remarking with admiration: “Kya banda hai. Thakta hi nahin (what a man. Never gets tired)”.
Kohli’s numbers demand attention: 23000 international runs, 70 hundreds, 68 matches as Test captain, more than anyone else. Arguably the best all format player in the world, Kohli is a secure fixed deposit in Tests and still the best chase master in ODIs. Someone described him as the proverbial long arm of the law who will get you in the end, no matter what.
These exploits guarantee him a permanent place in the cricket’s list of greats. Kohli at 100 deserves every bit of royal privilege. He has been an outstanding servant and leader of Indian cricket. Various captains before him (Tiger Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sourav Ganguly and MSD) shaped Indian cricket but Kohli has etched a permanent spike mark on our cricket team’s culture. He reset the way India played and updated its operating system. The prominent changes he made were these:
Injected steel into a team that was soft, making it an aggressive unit wanting to win abroad.
Followed a punishing routine himdelf, and made fitness a basic eligibility condition for selection.
Representing a self-confident India, he altered Indian cricket’s grammar by deleting backfoot from the copybook.
Kohli did this by assuming power, and he wasn’t a democratic leader who upheld liberal values. His seven-year reign was marked by autocratic actions and such was his aura he had a free run to decide policy. But the tide turned as it always does and the last six months have been eventful with misfortune landing in a heap at his doorstep. Kohli’s bat fell silent, the hundreds dried up, he was stripped of limited over captaincy and resigned Test captaincy.
But suggestions Kohli’s career is headed south are misplaced. No cricketer has escaped a lean trot and it is a matter of time—one innings, perhaps—before Kohli’s class reasserts itself. Till 100, his story was about the extraordinary makeover of chubby Cheeku from Rajouri Garden in Delhi to champion cricketer, an inspirational tale of what is possible by relentless drive and uncompromising hard work.
Post 100, expect him to take a deep breath and a fresh guard to start the journey again. And as he targets the next 100 to catch up with Tendulkar's 200 Tests, Kohli can count on the good wishes of cricket fans and his 20 crore social media followers. Nobody knows what the future holds but for his swag, style and success King Kohli deserves a 21-gun salute.
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