The oddness of 'resting' Virat Kohli ahead of the 2022 T20 World Cup

Virat Kohli will not be travelling to the West Indies for the T20I series that starts in Trinidad on July 29, 2022. (Illustration by Suneesh K.)

Virat Kohli appears to be taking more breaks from his job than even Rahul Gandhi. This is puzzling since all these holidays do not seem to be helping his batting form in any way. The man who, it was once surmised, had a chance to break Sachin Tendulkar’s awesome one-day international (ODI) records, has gone without an international century in any form of the game for more than two and a half years.

And now he will not be travelling to the West Indies for the white-ball series that starts in a few days.

On Thursday (July 14, 2022) at Lord’s, Virat Kohli began well with three glorious drives to the boundary. And then he fell in a manner that is becoming common for him. A good-length delivery from David Willey, wide of the off stump; Kohli goes chasing the ball, hanging his bat out, nicks it and it’s a regulation catch for wicketkeeper Jos Buttler.

He scored 11 and 20 in the Edgbaston test, and 12 runs in the two T20Is that followed. He did not play in the T20 series against Ireland and then sat out the first ODI against England, apparently with a groin strain. Prior to this, he sat out the T20 series and one test against New Zealand.

Yet, at Edgbaston, he quite unnecessarily sledged Jonny Bairstow, taunting him and blowing him a mocking kiss when Bairstow was dismissed for 106 in the first innings. English fans and media were not amused. Terms like “insufferable” and “most dislikeable cricketer in the world” were used.

Television broadcaster Piers Morgan pointed out that Bairstow had “scored three more Test hundreds in the past month than Kohli has in the past 2.5 years”. To add insult to injury, the English wicketkeeper-batsman, who is in the form of his life, scored one more century in the second innings as India slumped to ignominious defeat.

In the last two and a half years, while his form deserted him, Kohli seems to have been, in turns, self-absorbed, petulant and defiant. In the first test at Adelaide during the 2020-21 India-Australia test, India were all out for a pathetic 36, their lowest test total ever. Yet, Kohli, the captain, took the next flight back to India to attend the birth of his daughter, not to return for the rest of the series. It is quite another matter that Ajinkya Rahane then led India to a terrific series win. But it is difficult not to be disappointed when a captain abandons his team when it is at its lowest point.

Then in the run-up to the last T20 World Cup, Kohli suddenly announced that he would be giving up T20 captaincy after the tournament. This seemed to be a unilateral decision and he did not wait to follow the correct procedure of making the announcement jointly with the Indian cricket board.

After India’s poor performance in the World Cup, it seemed only a matter of time before Rohit Sharma took over as captain in the ODI format too—it is logical to have one captain in both the limited versions of the game. But when the board made this announcement, a visibly angry Kohli called a press conference and complained that the board had informed him of its decision only two hours before it went public with it. This show of petulance hardly increased his popularity, since chief executive officers of vast transnational corporations are often sacked by their boards with much less than two hours notice, and the Indian cricket board had every right to announce its decision immediately after informing Kohli. Besides, should Kohli not have anticipated this?

His ill-tempered response gives one an impression that he thought he was untouchable. That could have been so if he had been performing on the field.

Till 2019-end, Kohli played 84 test matches, scoring 7,202 runs with 27 centuries and 22 50s, at an average of 54.97. Since 2020, in 18 tests, he has scored only 872 runs, with no centuries and only six 50s, at an average of 27.25, less than half of his previous batting average.

In ODIs, till 2019, Kohli had scored 11,609 runs in 242 games, with 43 centuries—second only to Tendulkar—and 55 50s, at a stellar average of 59.84. But since then, in 18 ODIs, he has scored 702 runs, with no 100s and six 50s, at an average of 39.

In recent months, a growing section of critics—including former skipper Kapil Dev—have been saying that by keeping Kohli in the team, India have been denying talented young players like Deepak Hooda and Suryakumar Yadav their rightful places, especially in the T20 format. However, though he failed in the last Indian Premier League (IPL)—341 runs in 16 games at an average of 22.73, Kohli’s performance since 2020 has been better in T20Is than in tests and ODIs.

Also read: Virat Kohli rested: A brief history of dropping versus 'resting' star cricketers

Till end-2019, in 75 T20Is, he had scored 2,633 runs with 24 50s at an average of 52.66. Since then he has played 24 games and scored 675 runs with six 50s at an average of 42.18. So there has been a dip in his scores but not as drastic as in the two longer versions.

Yet, questions are being raised. Now that he will sit out the West Indies tour, he will have only the T20 Asia Cup tournament and three matches against Australia before the next T20 World Cup that begins in October. As one commentator has asked, how does Kohli intend to get back into form if he does not play? It is actual competitive matches that can help iron out your issues.

Some days ago , in a media interview on the occasion of his 50th birthday, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly said that during his playing days, the concept of resting players did not exist. He himself, he said, played international cricket for 13 years without thinking of taking a break. Though he did not mention this, Ganguly’s daughter was born when he was far away from home, on a tough tour of South Africa.

However, perhaps the best comment came from Sunil Gavaskar. How is it that no player asks for a break from IPL, he asked. It’s only when representing India that cricketers feel overworked.

Every sportsman goes through lean patches. There is no doubt that Kohli has been one of the greatest batsmen of the last decade, if not of all time. But this lean patch seems to have lasted inordinately long. Perhaps Kohli needs just that one piece of luck and he will come roaring back. However, frequent resting will not help. Good fortune can strike only when you play.