Kohli 'put ego aside', sacrificed all-time best feats for India's success: 'His numbers weren't as good as 5 years back'
Aaron Finch was full of appreciation for Virat Kohli, stating how his single-minded insistence on cricket games came at the cost of his own counting stats.
Virat Kohli’s last few years of Test cricket before the announcement of his retirement were by no means his finest, as his average dipped to sub-50, and the pure weight of run-scoring through the latter half of the 2010s dried up. Nevertheless, in the eyes of many of his teammates and competitors, that is not a factor which diminishes his greatness and his presence as one of India’s truest Test heroes.
In particular, this is due to the immense success he generated while captain of the Indian team. According to former Australian captain Aaron Finch, one of the most impressive things about Virat Kohli the Test player was his ability to prioritise the needs of his team over his own, despite the appeal of trying to bolster when blessed with the quality Kohli possessed in his prime.
Speaking on JioStar during an IPL pre-show, Finch said: "What really stands out to me about Virat's leadership is that you can look at his numbers now and say they're not as good as they were five years ago. But he was playing on some wickets in India that were spinning hugely from day one. It was about putting your own ego aside to say, 'What's the best thing for my team right now to win a Test match against this opposition?'"
Finch praises Kohli's winning mentality
Kohli did struggle with a big technical flaw in his game outside the off-stump, leading to all but one of his nine dismissals in his final Test series in Australia coming to edges outside the off-stump. Nevertheless, despite the negative trend his stats took in those last few years, Finch believed that his win-at-all-costs mentality made up the gap between him and the players through cricket history who did finish their careers with 50+ batting averages and more red-ball centuries.
"They could have rolled out some flat wickets and said, 'I'm going to cash in on my own runs and make sure that my record stacks up with some of the all-time greats,' but he put his own ego aside and said, 'I want what's best for my team to win this match,'" explained Finch, greatly crediting a man he spent years competing against.
Kohli was at the helm of one of India's most successful periods at home and away both, setting the foundation for the 12-year unbeaten streak in home Test series while also helping the team to a first series win in Australia, and breaking ground in other SENA countries. India's dominance at home was particularly a point of pride for Kohli.
Kohli was set to receive a hero’s welcome at the Chinnaswamy Stadium to commemorate his retirement from Test cricket, but will have to wait for the next time RCB plays after their match against KKR was washed out without a ball bowled.
