Border Gavaskar Trophy: How Virat Kohli's 186 at Ahmedabad is like Sachin Tendulkar's 241 at SCG

Virat Kohli's disciplined and beautifully paced 28th Test ton should give his five-day career a second wind. (File photo)

The first crisis point of Virat Kohli's international career came in the summer of 2014, when James Anderson had his number during the five-Test series in England. Then in only his third year in Test cricket, Kohli aggregated a measly 134 in ten innings, averaging a miserable 13.4. It was make-or-break time, almost.

On his return to India, Kohli sought out Sachin Tendulkar’s assistance. Armed with the master’s inputs and useful tips from Ravi Shastri, who had come on board as the national team director, he embarked on a mission to change perceptions, scoring four hundreds in a four-Test series in Australia that same winter.

Between the end of 2014 and November of 2019, Kohli strode the cricketing world like a colossus. He scored Test and One-Day International hundreds for fun, against all comers in all parts of the world. Unthinkably, he averaged more than 50 in each of the three formats internationally, and when he wasn’t playing for the country, he was piling on the runs for Royal Challengers Bangalore. It was as if the cricketing Gods couldn’t have enough of him.

Then, the fickleness of form caught up with him, tellingly. There was no indication during his masterly 136 in challenging conditions in the day-night Test against Bangladesh at Eden Gardens on November 23, 2019, that Kohli wouldn’t raise his bat to acknowledge the cheers of the fans for another three-figure effort for nearly three years. When his bat went cold, especially in Test cricket, it did so spectacularly.

From the beginning of 2020, and a forgettable two-Test series in New Zealand, Kohli suddenly was unrecognisable as the Test behemoth he had been for so long. It was as if someone had turned the switch off. Forget big hundreds, even the small fifties became increasingly rare. While he did make attractive runs in the two limited-overs formats, his Test record took a terrible beating, his average dipping from the mid-53s to 47, impressive in isolation but hardly Kohli-esque.

In 23 Tests between 2020 and March 9, 2023, when the ongoing final Test against Australia kicked off in Ahmedabad, Kohli averaged 25.70 – 13 overseas, 10 at home. In 41 innings, he only struck six half-centuries and a highest of 79. Plenty of others have been dropped for better numbers, but the decision-makers felt the volume and magnificence of Kohli’s runs in the bag deserved, indeed demanded, a far longer rope.

How long, though? That was the burning question. Agreed, he had ended a 1,020-day wait between international centuries last September at the Asia Cup T20 tournament in Dubai, and made three subsequent 50-over hundreds, but did that warrant sustained selection in a Test XI that couldn’t accommodate other in-form batsmen? Captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid seemed to think so, and that’s what matters.

On an overcast Sunday at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Kohli repaid the faith in the best way possible – with a timely, intelligent, disciplined, beautifully paced 28th Test ton that should give his five-day career a second wind.

Over the first three Tests, there had been indications that Kohli was on the threshold of turning the corner. On a difficult surface in New Delhi last month, he produced a beautiful 44; in the Indore sandpit last week when India were shot out for 109, his 22 stood out for how much in control he was. But how do you hold up 44 and 22 as defence for Kohli?

You don’t, Kohli seemed to say on Sunday. You don’t have to. So, how about 186?

To those that might argue that his drought-exploding hundred came on the most docile of tracks, the counter is that it came under score-board pressure – Australia had amassed 480 – and after having spent nearly two days in the field under a searing sun. The counter also is that while there were few demons in the track, it called for restraint and discipline. It challenged one’s ability to build an innings. It didn’t encourage stroke-production, which truly is Kohli’s ally and forte.

In so many ways, Kohli channelled his inner Tendulkar in Ahmedabad. Some 19 years back, in Australia, the little man had endured a miserable Test series, running up a sequence of 0, 1, 37, 0 and 44 in the first three Tests. He was often dismissed playing expansively through the off-side and nicking to the keeper, so when 2004 dawned and the teams moved to Sydney, Tendulkar decided that to him, the off-side didn’t exist.

In an innings remarkable for the shots he did not play, Tendulkar danced to an unbeaten 241 at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), following it up with an unconquered 60 in the second innings. Kohli played the able pupil to the unquestioned maestro, taking the off-side out of the equation for almost the entirety of the first half of his innings and using the tucks and whips to leg as his primary scoring options.

Things didn’t come easy. He could have been dismissed by three of the first four balls of his innings, from the exceptional Nathan Lyon who beat him on both edges. He could have despaired at how there was little to show for time spent in the middle because he is a vocal advocate of taking the game forward. He could have been frustrated that for long periods, he went boundary-less – indeed, his first 100 had only five fours and came off 241 deliveries – because by nature, he is a prolific boundary-hitter. Yet, in the interests of team and self, in that order, he swallowed his ego and addressed the situation like he needed to.

Shubman Gill had wowed audiences on Saturday with his subliminal ball-striking, but the Ahmedabad fans had come for a taste of Kohli. And the old warhorse did not disappoint. This might not have been his most dominant or fluent innings, not by a long stretch until three-figures were attained and then he started to purr like the Kohli of old. But to misquote Arnold Schwarzenegger, it screamed out ‘I AM BACK’. Welcome back, his dressing-room and millions of fans screamed back.