The Kohli Story: From Everything to Nothing

                                    image credit: AFP

The year was 2012, and India was playing against Sri Lanka in Hobart. I wasn't a true admirer of neither cricket then nor of specifically "Virat Kohli" for whom I had penned down this emotional and lovely message. Had a great interest only in cricket, and knew someone like Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni as the face of Indian cricket. Sri Lanka gave a target of 321 runs to India. It can be said chasable until you realize the over-limit seized to 40 only due to rain. Now it looks like humongous work.

No problem, man, Sachin is there, Gambhir is there, Raina is there, Dhoni is there, and Virat...Yaa, he can add some value not great though. 90% would have thought this.

On the contrary, the next-level masterclass happened. By whom, Sachin or Gambhir...no man...can't believe; it's Kohli who roared out as the Knight in the need. This guy just smashed 86-ball 133. Man... he just went behind the great Lasith Malinga who was just unplayable at his peak.

That day, I alongside thousands of Indian cricket admirers became a fan of that 23-year-old Kohli. Never knew, he can go a that long way though. After that, the young Kohli had another moment to remember as he scored his highest ever ODI score, 183 runs. That too against their arch-rivals, Pakistan. “Yeah, yeah; this boy has the potential to be the next big thing”. In another instance, Virat had toured Aussies for the first time in the 2011-12 BG trophy, and guess what, he dominated there too. I remember one of his innings there in the 4^th test where he single-handedly played one of the finest knocks of his career.

In reply to Australia’s 604, India managed just 272 in which Virat alone scored 116 runs against the likes of Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle, and Nathan Lyon. The next best score was 35 by Wriddhiman Saha; telling the potential Kohli had.

There are so many stories to tell about Kohli, yeah; one more I remember, Australia was playing us in a 7-match ODI series. How come one forget that memorable series where Kohli along with Rohit and Dhawan emerged as the permanent in the Indian team. But before that let us recap the Champions Trophy 2013 final. That Atmosphere was intense and India was batting first in what was reduced to 20 overs per side game due to rain delay.

India in their 20 overs managed to score just 129 runs on the board and you know who was the top scorer, Yaa Virat Kohli, that 24-year-old guy in the pressure situation just bullied all English bowlers on an overcast Birmingham pitch scoring 43 runs. What a player he was. He had all the shots in his ante.

With time his grace and reputation increased, his persona doubled, and he became the rising star of Indian Cricket. Now come to that Australia series, which is famous for Rohit’s first double ton and that chase by Rohit and Kohli in Jaipur. Kohli just smashed the fastest century by an Indian in ODI cricket, breaking Virendra Sehwag’s record. In the 6^th ODI match at Nagpur, he again went bonkers smashing another century in 61-balls. He was at his peak at just 25 years of age.

In 2014, in the T20I World Cup in Bangladesh, he again did wonders coming out as the player of the tournament in the ultimate competition. Though India ended up as runners-up, it was Kohli’s tournament. He smashed undefeated half-centuries in both semi-final and final against South Africa and Sri Lanka respectively.

Virat Kohli looked more promising than other youngsters out there alongside him. Yaa, there were competitors in Kane Williamson, Steve Smith, Root, etc; but he was something else. He was scoring runs in plenty, it looked like there is no stopping him.

But I was wrong, one man out there was watching his gameplay closely and observing everything from his strengths and weaknesses. That plan worked too, against him Virat got out 5 times in a series and that turned out to be a horrific tour for him. Yes, I’m talking about that 2014 England tour, where Kohli managed just 134 runs in 10 innings with James Anderson picking him up five times.

That tour just went across Kohli’s soul and I think that jolted him completely from inside. He once said, he was quite in depression after that, he didn’t get sleep for a few nights. That phase is very hard for any batter that you are not contributing to the team, you are just going out in the middle for the sake of adding a wickets section.

But, overcoming that phase is what makes a person immortal and yes Virat Kohli has that never die attitude. After 5 months of that forgettable series, he toured Australia for the second time, and this time, it was a different version of Kohli in comparison to what we have seen over the years.

Kohli just dominated the fiery pace attack of Australia, this time with much more added value to them in Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazelwood to name a few. He just cleared his basics of the game and went on to score 692 runs with 4 hundred in it. That series I remember proved to be a turning point for Kohli and team India considering their overseas performance.

Virat Kohli took over the test captaincy of India from there on when India was at the number 7 position and made them the best side in the world in the following years.

The Test Captaincy will be written in golden words in Virat Kohli’s biography if ever written.

                                    image credit: AFP

The change he bought into the side was just unbelievable. Now, India was competing and winning overseas too with unreal domination in-home tests. India won two consecutive Border-Gavaskar series, though Virat wasn’t there in 2020-21, the mindset that he instilled was sowing results.

Then came the year 2016, now what we can say about this year. This year had a separate space in the hearts of all Indian cricket and Kohli fans. That brilliance in T20 World Cup, domination in Asia Cup, and the 2016 IPL season. He worked as a one-man army in the world cup and Asia cup hoarding 273 runs in the T20 mega tournament with 89* as the best score whereas India’s second-best scorer was MS Dhoni with 89 runs. The difference between him and the rest of the Indian team.

In the 2016 IPL season, Kohli shattered all the records and scored a record 973 runs in the single edition with 4 hundred and 7 half-centuries to his name. That year was badass, no one could point out even 1% of mistakes in his technique or skills. He was just working on being the best version of himself.

Following these heroics, Virat had England against him this time under his reign. The challenge was to give a reply to the 2011 home series loss and 2014 away series loss plus giving a reply of that 2014 tour with the bat in style. He did it, he did it… Virat Kohli had 655 runs in that series alone with the highest score of 235 at Mumbai.

India won that series 4-0 and claimed the number one position in test cricket. In the next year, Virat played his first-ever ICC tournament as a captain. It ended up a bit emotional for all as India lost in the final to arch-rivals Pakistan. Kohli was criticized for his mindset and bat performance. Though it just went ahead as he entered the 2018 season. Full of highs as a batter and lows as a skipper.

First, he toured South Africa where he just set the high standards in test series and one-day series winning the one-day series while losing the other one.

After that tour, he went to another tour, this tour…gosh…this tour was worth watching the potential of Virat Kohli as a batter in swinging conditions. And to stand at the expectations of Indian fans, he mastered 593 runs in 10 innings with 2 hundred to his name. he scored 149 runs in the very first innings he played there which was more than the total runs he scored in the previous tour.

This amazing tour made him the invincible King of cricket. However, India lost the series 4-1, but Kohli won all the hearts of his fans. Kohli reclaimed the 1^st rank in ICC test batter rankings. Next was a historic tour that they did in Australia and made him the best Indian captain in tests too, becoming the first-ever Indian captain to win test series in Australia.

India won the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar trophy by a 2-1 margin where Pujara was the showstopper with 521 runs whereas Kohli was spot on with his batting and captaincy knocking one high-class century on a green Perth pitch where all other batters struggled.

There comes 2019, an all-emotional and the last dominating year for King Kohli. This was the year when Kohli scored his last international century. The biggest talking point was the World Cup campaign in England and Wales. India reached the semis thanks to some wonderful play from Rohit Sharma who made 5 hundred. Kohli too had an amazing tournament with 5 half-centuries on the trot. However, he was unclicked with any century.

India lost the heart-breaking match in the semis against New Zealand after which the experts and pundits pointed out Kohli’s captaincy. But he carried on with the same pride and toured Windies where he scored two consecutive centuries, which were his last ODI centuries as well. In the following month, India welcomed Bangladesh for a Test series and hosted their first ever Pink-ball test.

Kohli raised to that occasion too becoming the first Indian batter to score a century in the pink ball test. And this was officially the last international century for Kohli. he was on 70 centuries, and didn’t know it will take 3 years to search for the 71^st and the search will still prevail.

After corona, Kohli wasn’t the same we were used to. He lost his touch, he lost his badass form, he lost that ability. He was scoring half-centuries but the standard he was so high that below century, it was nothing. Kohli was dipping as a captain too. Everything had taken a toll on him; he was tired both physically and mentally but was there till the end. In a single test he captained in BG Trophy 2020-21, India registered their lowest ever Test score of 36 under him, he was unanswerable.

Following that in World Test Championship Final at Southampton, India lost against New Zealand and it was the downfall of Kohli as a skipper and as a batter, it seemed nothing was going in favour of him. However, it partially changed as India was ahead in the England tour in 2021 after 4 matches that were played. India was ahead by a 2-1 margin before the last match was postponed to next year due to covid. Skipper Kohli was on-point but the batter Kohli wasn’t the same as in 2018. He scored only 2 half-centuries.

The possible change didn’t last as India was eliminated from the group stage of the ICC T20 world cup 2021 in Dubai after two straight losses to Pakistan and New Zealand. Kohli had already announced his resignation from T20I captaincy though. After a few days, BCCI axed him from ODI captaincy as well pointing out that no two different captains should be there for limited overs.

After that, India toured South Africa which was the latest downfall and an end of an era as a Test skipper for him. India lost the series 2-1 and Kohli resigned from test captaincy as well. Nothing was going right. All things came in sudden and the persona of Kohli just relinquished.

The same Kohli was gone, now it was that Kohli who was playing just for name’s sake. There wasn’t any productivity from him. I had lost the Kohli I knew, I had lost my idol, I had lost my childhood hero, I had lost the reason for which I opted cricket. He isn’t retired but he isn’t giving any vibe of his presence.

Don’t know when I will see my old Kohli back but I will always cherish and remember the moment he gave us as a batter, as skipper, as a player, and as a cricketer. Won't ever forget what he has done for Indian cricket over the years. A lean patch, that will surely fade away but we can’t get that same Virat Kohli.

Won’t get that same Virat Kohli who was called as run machine and the brand of Indian cricket. There are so many things to say, but it is enough as far as I am concerned.

Rise idol, Chin up Kohli, you will remain the best in this sport. Nothing can change your aura, charm, and most importantly that king Era.

VIRAT KOHLI for you…….