I remember meeting Virat Kohli at the Mumbai Airport on November 2011 just ahead of the Mumbai Test between India and West Indies. I was there to receive him for a cricket function the day after. He was already grabbing headlines with his limited-overs’ shows and of course his expletives-filled celebrations. Switching between his BBM and WhatsApp on his two phones, he was occupied with his swanky gadgets but the moment Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh (who was dropped from that Test) got involved in a seemingly serious discussion, the then 23-year-old walked close to his senior colleagues and stood there silently. READ: Happy Birthday, Virat Kohli: Top 10 innings of India’s Test skipper
We quickly entered the car as the “Virat! Virat!” chants from passengers and fans(mostly female) got louder. I didn’t speak much to him, but I wondered: this man (or should I say boy?) is so young — and has two World Cups to his name! He lives life in a fast lane; isn’t it easy for someone to get swayed by the offered distraction?
In hindsight it was interesting to recollect how quickly he switched off from the digital world in order to be around Tendulkar and his once idol Yuvraj. That’s how serious he takes the game; I should have realised it years back when he attended his father’s funeral only once his Ranji knock was completed. Much has changed since that day in 2011 and Kohli’s rise has been phenomenal.
Call him brash, brat, rude, arrogant or cocky but there is no denying that Kohli is India’s best batsman at the moment — and certainly among the best in the world. Steve Waugh knows a bit about adjectives mentioned above: some were even tagged to him, but it never mattered. He ended as one of the greats of the sport.
Waugh recently said, “I think he is probably the best batsman in the world. Technically, he is fantastic. I have a 16-year-old son and I have told him ‘if you need someone as your role model, I think he should be Virat Kohli’. He should aspire to play like him.” He further stated that Kohli would finish as one of the all-time greats. You ought to be special to be merit those words from someone like Waugh. READ: Happy Birthday Virat Kohli: Tracing the growth of a superstar
Kohli, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Joe Root are probably the best under-30 batsmen in world cricket at the moment. What sets them apart is the way they have improved with every outing and they look to shoulder the extra responsibility. When we take all the three formats into consideration, Kohli edges out the other three.
Tests
| Players | M | R | Ave | HS | 100s | SR |
| Kohli | 37 | 2794 | 45.06 | 169 | 11 | 53.01 |
| Smith | 33 | 3095 | 56.27 | 215 | 11 | 55.83 |
| Williamson | 41 | 3199 | 45.7 | 242* | 10 | 45.67 |
| Root | 34 | 3010 | 56.79 | 200* | 8 | 52.7 |
ODIs
| Players | M | R | Ave | HS | 100s | SR |
| Kohli | 166 | 6831 | 50.6 | 183 | 23 | 89.5 |
| Smith | 64 | 1726 | 39.22 | 105 | 4 | 86.95 |
| Williamson | 85 | 3362 | 48.02 | 145* | 7 | 84.19 |
| Root | 59 | 2076 | 42.36 | 121 | 6 | 83.3 |
T20Is
| Players | M | R | Ave | HS | 100s | SR |
| Kohli | 30 | 1016 | 44.17 | 78* | 0 | 132.63 |
| Smith | 22 | 258 | 19.84 | 90 | 0 | 122.27 |
| Williamson | 25 | 584 | 29.2 | 57 | 0 | 128.07 |
| Root | 10 | 251 | 41.83 | 90* | 0 | 131.41 |
(Stats prior to the England vs Pakistan third Test at Sharjah that started November 1, 2015)
India have been among the best limited-overs side in the recent years and Kohli’s numbers have played a role in the rise. He had a slow start to his Test career but ever since captaincy came his way, he has further improved as a batsman. He has notched 4 Test hundreds as captain and averages over 63. And some of those hundreds have been of true quality.
What sets Kohli apart? He may own the fast cars, all the swank gadgets and often hit the dance floor, but nothing takes his cricket time. His ability to switch-off is incredible. He has often spoken about visualising playing against an opponent before the game. That’s how serious he takes his game. READ: Happy Birthday Virat Kohli: Tracing the growth of a superstar
Kohli is, without doubt, one of the most hard-working cricketers. Amidst the more gifted, talented and the preferred ones, Kohli is someone who has worked his way to stardom. He is the most improved cricketer and that’s where he stands ahead of the likes of Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma or Shikhar Dhawan.
The aggression acts as a fuel to him and leadership has made him curb the outer show to some extent. Many a times he may have come across as immature with his behaviour but he is perhaps one of the most matured minds out for India at the moment. While his ODI hundreds at Hobart (against Sri Lanka) and Dhaka (against Pakistan) in 2012 symbolised extreme dominance, his 138 against South Africa at Chennai demonstrated his maturity and ability to curb instincts for the sake of larger good, when needed.
As leader he is more in the Steve Waugh-Sourav Ganguly mould where belief plays a key role. No wonder Ganguly and Waugh are huge admirers of the young man. Not only does believe that India can win consistently abroad, but he also believes in his own abilities to deliver regularly. In doing so, he takes the extra onus to do the job himself. He plays to win and his goal is either hauling the target or restricting it; there are no safe measures. When he fails, his comments aren’t layered with excuses and it’s the same with his batting too.
In Test cricket he has shown glimpses of being able to finish off games single-handedly. The Adelaide Test of 2014 is still fresh in minds: both hundreds exemplified class and extreme self-belief. If someone has scored 23 hundreds from 166 ODIs (most of them in successful chases), it doesn’t need rocket-science to figure out the steel he is made of.
Modern batsmen strive for extravagance but Kohli knows his game and plays around it. It’s important for batsmen to know their strength and build their batting on its foundation. Kohli does that and he also knows all the three formats well. He recently said, “When I go in to bat in a Test, I go in there with plans — I am going to leave the balls pitched in a particular line, I am going to hit the ball only between two certain points in the field and not play a certain shot till I score a set number of runs. If something is pitched short at me, I will go for the runs as it is my scoring area.”
Having watched Kohli evolve as a batsman over the years, he has made significant progress in terms of technique as well. When he started there wasn’t any noticeable extraordinariness to his batting; all accolades of “extra time” or “elegance” were reserved for young Rohit Sharma.
How things have changed since then! Watch Kohli’s transfer of weight and control when he drives the ball or his footwork against spin. Be it front-foot pulls or slaps through square, Kohli effortlessly makes batting look good.
It all didn’t happen overnight. There was a time early in his career when Kohli swayed away and was dropped from the side. But a man’s true character can be judged when he realises his mistakes and takes steps to make the amends. In 2011, in an interview with ESPNCricinfo, Kohli said: “I spent twice as much time on the field. I didn’t feel like hanging out with friends or going for a party for one and a half years. And never on an evening did I feel like I have had enough of hard work and I need to party, I deserve one night with my friends.
For one and a half years straight, I was just spending time working in the gym or in the field, practising. I would come back and lie down, thinking that I should get 10 hours of sleep, I should get proper sleep for my body. I taught myself to think that way — just love each and every minute on the field. And I started to enjoy my batting much more and felt very confident about myself. It was all about cutting out all the other distractions I had and just focusing on cricket full time. My only aim was to get back into the team.”
Another hallmark of a champion is having the ability to call a spade a spade. Be it his relationship with Anushka Sharma or his cricket, he is straightforward. He accepts failure and when James Anderson had him fishing outside off-stump in England in 2014 on a consistent basis, he admitted his technical flaws and discussed it with Tendulkar; in the next away series in Australia, he looked a different batsman.
Add technique to his mental strength and we are looking at an all-time great. Amol Muzumdar, a very correct batsman in his playing days for Mumbai, in his recent Mid-Day column, put it quite aptly: “…what makes him [Kohli] so special is that for starters, he has great technique. After that, come all the other ingredients like temperament, hunger, anger, fitness to bat for long periods etc. If you watch closely, his body alignment is correct for every shot he plays. The reason for that is his head position. If you happen to draw a line from his head towards the line of the ball you would, more often than not, get a straight line. Now, that’s what I call head positioning,” wrote the Mumbai stalwart.
Yes, we are looking at a long-time captain and an all-time great in the making. Happy Birthday, Virat! It was a good start to the day by winning the toss and wish you made it count with bat too. The 4-ball 1, which came on your big day, is a rare occurrence in your cricket career. As I have mentioned before, you are India’s best batsman, and your willow-wielding abilities will play a role in determining the result of the four-Test series against South Africa.
(Suvajit Mustafi consumes cricket for lunch, fiction for dinner and munches numerous other snacks throughout the day. Yes, a jack of several trades, all Suvajit dreamt of was being India’s World Cup winning skipper but ended up being a sports writer, author, screenwriter, director, copywriter, graphic designer, sports marketer , strategist, entrepreneur, philosopher and traveller. Donning so many hats, it’s cricket which gives him the ultimate high and where he finds solace. He can be followed at @RibsGully and rivu7)
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