Kohli's 100th Test: Time to take a fresh guard

Virat Kohli, who was recently succeeded by Rohit Sharma as India's all-format skipper, will return for the Test series after taking a break from the current three-match Twenty20 series.

“His influence is likely to be profound on the type of Indian cricketer to come, and therefore on the nature of cricket that India will play in future.” - former England captain Mike Atherton in The Times

This was written in December 2016 and the prophecy has indeed come true. Perhaps, it is not an exaggeration to say that no Indian captain has singularly transformed the culture of not only his team but future generations as well. However, what Kohli managed to accomplish as a captain was largely due to his extraordinary brilliance with bat in Test cricket as well. Since his debut in the Caribbeans in 2011, except Steven Smith, no other batsmen have scored as many Test centuries (27). Not only that, if you take the criteria for a minimum of 99 Tests, no other Test cricketer averages more than Kohli (50.39). However, numbers only reveal one part of the whole story. Kohli as a batsman has been a colossus regardless of his recent struggles (no ton since November 2019 and it stretches to 27 innings without a three-figure-mark).

Only eleven cricketers have gone on to play 100 or more Test matches for India and half a dozen in this list are batsmen. Perhaps, Dillip Vengsarkar and Sourav Ganguly can consider themselves a bit lucky to be part of this elite club since their average is just around 42. While VVS Laxman scored at nearly 46 and Virender Sehwag missed the coveted average of 50 by a whisker, it leaves just three batsmen with a 50 plus average in Test cricket-which is a prerequisite for being an all-time great as a batsman. Kohli will be the 4th one from India with a 50 plus average to be part of this club but his journey is not over yet and he still has the potential to end up as the greatest ever Test batsman from India.

I distinctly remember former India spinner Maninder Singh who in a TV chat show with me in 2010 spoke profusely about Kohli. Maninder who hails from Delhi and had watched Kohli from his formative years was convinced that the chora (the lad) was a better version of Sehwag. Maninder was convinced that with a superior and better defensive technique, Kohli was blessed with almost all the qualities to join the likes of Tendulkar and Gavaskar. Every time, one meets Maninder and if there is a chat around Kohli, he would gently ask about the clip from that TV show!

Kohli hasn’t just been a better version of Sehwag and in so many ways, he has imbibed the finest qualities of India’s greatest batsmen. If has got the fearlessness of Gavaskar against the hostile fast bowling, then he also possessed the attacking range of shots from Tendulkar. However, both Gavaskar and Tendulkar had a far superior batting average than Kohli (just a touch over 50) during their 100th Test match.

Nobody knows if Kohli is past his prime as his best phase in Test cricket came during 2016-2019 period where he averaged nearly 67 in 43 matches with over four thousand (4208) runs and 16 tons. Particularly, 2018 was truly a Virat year for Kohli as none was more successful than him with 1322 runs at 55.08 with five hundred. Astonishingly, except one rest of the tons came in the SENA countries.

There is one little story which has stayed with me forever as far as Kohli is concerned. It speaks about his sheer confidence in his own ability. Kohli had got his first break in Test cricket on a tour of West Indies in 2011 after piling runs and hundreds in the shorter formats since his debut in 2008. He failed miserably in his very first series and looked uncomfortable against short-pitched bowling of Fidel Edwards. Subsequently, Kohli was dropped from the tour of England which was scheduled just after the Caribbean trip. Kohli along with some of his team-mates were changing airports for connecting flights in London’s Gatwick airport. I went up to Kohli to console him and tried to put some encouraging words. Kohli just smiled and said-“Bus intezar kijiyega, wapsi aisi hogi ki sab yad rakhenge (Just wait, my next comeback will be worth remembering!)

Not only his comeback, but his entire career is also now like a memorable dream. The 100th Test is perhaps just a grand occasion to take a fresh guard for King Kohli who will be playing his first match purely as a player after six years. There is still some unfinished business left for Kohli.