India vs New Zealand 2nd Test: How Virat Kohli’s 45 laid foundation for Rohit Sharma’s 82

Yuvraj Singh, a match-winner for India in many occasions and Virat Kohli‘s India teammate once said, “There are players who are in form and there is Kohli, who wins you games again and again!” Though numbers matter, it is not always a century or a half-century that helps a side win a match but a proper and vital innings that does the trick. As India played on Day Three of the second Test against New Zealand, Rohit Sharma continued his love-story with Eden Gardens, playing a crucial knock. Nonetheless, it was the India’s Test skipper who had set the stage for him with a gritty knock. Full Cricket Scorecard, India Vs New Zealand 2nd Test at Kolkata

The Eden Gardens pitch was not behaving typically producing surprising bounce. It was not an easy pitch to bat on. Indian batsmen, known to be good players of spin and not as much comfortable in front of a strong pace attack, were not at ease as expected in home conditions. The victory at Kanpur had a lot to do with how the pitch had started turning early on and the change in style of play was prominent as they started their journey in Eden Gardens.

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Though Kohli the captain is tasting good success in the ongoing series so far, Kohli the batman has under performed. He has set the bar for himself so high that everyone expects him to perform when he is out in the middle. Rightly said by Sanjay Manjrekar, “Virat’s success does not surprise you. His failures do.” Kohli redefined consistency with his performance in recent times. With back-to-back tournaments — Asia Cup 2016, ICC World Twenty20 (WT20I) 2016, Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 — Kohli had a scope to play lots of T20Is this year and each time he seemed fresh and unfazed by previous successes. There was no sign of fatigue nor reluctance to move on the field due to exhaustion. Be it batting or fielding (Not to forget, he even grabbed a wicket in the WT20I 2016), Kohli looked invincible. The cricketing arena were sure that there is hardly any player as good as Kohli in limited-overs. Meanwhile, Kohli was not done yet and had lots to prove.

Considered among the ‘Fab four’ of modern day cricket, something that Kohli lacked and the other three — Kane Williamson, Joe Root and Steven Smith — did churn out was consistent performances in Test cricket. It is not like he has been very poor but his performance has not been up to ‘Kohli Scale of Measurement’ — flawless. For that matter, flaws were exposed a couple of years back as he struggled against deliveries in the corridor of uncertainty. What helped him achieve the Everest of success in limited-overs, made things harder for him in Test cricket. His aggression, being hyper-active on crease were taking a toll on his Test scores. Kohli looked impatient and kept on throwing his wicket away.

However, he had worked on his techniques. Being someone who never wants to give up, everyone knew Kohli would show the world how he improvised with the bat in Tests. It was just a matter of time for him to show his prowess. But as India’s Test season started off, it kept on getting delayed. Kohli’s first three innings hinted more at something his fans never like to know. With scores of 9, 18 and 9 in the three innings against New Zealand, it looked like nothing had changed since 2012. Similar act of playing a couple of glorious shots resulted in poor shot selections and led to his downfall.

Indian openers struggled in both the innings of the second Test. The onus was upon the ones following to ensure a safe score. However, the situation looked worse in the second innings. While in the first, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane played their calm-headed game to bring in stability, both of them had departed cheaply, leaving India to struggle at 43 for 4. India had to bounce back. Kohli had to perform.

To say, it was the situation Kohli loves. Some true words came from a person who does not belong to the field of cricket. “Virat Kohli is some player! In the high-pressure situations shows the type of player you are and he does it time and time again,” said Harry Kane of England football team. One can actually come to a conclusion that it was has been the pressure situations that has made Kohli reach the pinnacle of his game at such an early age. Like a mathematician loves challenges to solve, Kohli loves tense situations to test himself and show what kind of talent he possesses.

Barring his impatience, Kohli started playing carefully, yet gracefully. Viewers cannot find enough words to describe the extraordinarily beautiful drives that he places and times brilliantly but he learned lessons from previous innings. He left every second delivery he hit a boundary off thereby gradually building his innings. There were hardly any lack of decision or dilemma in his shot selection as Kohli refrained himself from taking risk or trying anything out of the box. He hardly went aggressive against Trent Boult and carefully picked the deliveries that were in his zone. By the time he had crossed thirty, a lot of pressure was taken away from Rohit who remained confined as a spectator at the other end to see Kohli’s nonchalant innings.

While it was important for Kohli to perform and improve his numbers, Rohit had a different issue. Being a great player of limited-overs mammoth runs under his belt, what differentiates him from the likes of Kohli is inconsistency. His Test numbers are no way closer to his ODI heroics and with talented new players fighting for a spot, Rohit’s place in the side is at stake in current situation. He had to perform not only to bail his side but to retain his place in the team. There could not have been a better venue than Eden Gardens for him to pull another fighting innings (Rohit scored 264 vs Sri Lanka in 2014 in an ODI).

Many would say, Kohli was unfortunate with his dismissal. He tried to defend with a straight bat but the ball bounced low hitting him on the pads. Few blamed the absence of DRS as the ball looked to go slightly wide of the off-stumps but the verdict was given. Kohli had to make the long walk back to the pavilion for a well made 45. Kohli had missed on scoring a half-century for eight innings on the trot but curtailed India out of troubled waters.

The disappointment was evident on Kohli’s face but he had played a vital knock. He initiated the stable innings that India wanted. His innings took the pressure away from Rohit to enable him to spend time and read the nature of the pitch. Rohit succeeded as he added a century run stand with wicketkeeper-batsman, Wriddhiman Saha, and scored 82 crucial runs. Kohli in a way inspired Rohit and as a captain to not give up on him despite a not so great record of late. Kohli is and will be a match-winner, sometimes with big numbers, sometimes with presence, sometimes with the right attitude and approach.

“To become a good player, you need talent. To become a great player, you need an attitude like Kohli” — Sunil Gavaskar.

(Paulami Chakraborty, a singer, dancer, artist, and photographer, loves the madness of cricket and writes about the game. She can be followed on Twitter at @Polotwitts)