At 28, Virat Kohli, is slowly asserting himself as one of India’s greatest batsmen of all time. He has scored runs in all formats and in all parts of the world. The England tour in 2014 turned out to be a minor blip, but the man came back in the way only he can, scoring more and more runs.
A successful Australian tour in 2014-15, followed by a personally impressive World Cup and Kohli was back to his best. He has now become a run machine, has left his peers way behind and has earned the admiration of his teammates. In short, Kohli is in the middle of a wonderful purple patch and is in the form of his life.
Named as India’s Test captain after the retirement of MS Dhoni, Kohli has taken to the task with relish. His out and out aggressive policy was lauded in Australia and it came as no surprise when he led India to a convincing 2-1 series victory during the tour of Sri Lanka. It was then followed by a stunning 3-0 hammering of South Africa at home, a result that catapulted India to number one in the ICC Test ranking for a while.
“I am happy I am contributing at the right times for the team,” Virat told bcci.tvon Sunday (March 6) after helping India clinch the Asia Cup, beating Bangladesh by a comfortable eight-wicket margin in the final. Kohli had played his part as well, his consistency being one of the major factors in India’s title triumph.
“There were a lot of speculations about me when I took rest for the tour against Sri Lanka. There were all sorts of articles and things written about me questioning whether it was a right move to rest at that point of time. There was a lot of negativity around that decision that was made, but I knew that mentally I needed a break and needed to refresh myself and comeback and do the same thing over and over again.
“Good habits are really hard to create and once you get them, you need to be in full flow and continue them day in and day out. I think that break really helped me focus again and continue what I did in Australia. I am really glad I could contribute in all the games here.”
“Good habits are really hard to create and once you get them, you need to be in full flow and continue them day in and day out.”
While his batting has come a long way, it’s his ability to innovate without taking risks, find the gaps in the field and the sheer consistency, which has stood apart. “It is very important to assess the field,” Kohli said, as he began to dissect his batting. “I have seen people mark fielders on the ground and I never understood why till I actually started paying attention to these minute details. As a batsman, you actually calculate how far you can hit the ball from the fielder. If you hit it really well, even 10 meters is good enough distance to beat the fielder even if the fielder moves sideways or has some kind of lateral movement on the field.
“It is very important to judge where the fielders are so that you can pick your gaps and execute what you want to. You have a clearer plan when you know where the fielders are and you can hit the ball in the gaps rather than just taking a risk and trying to hit over the line. Hitting the ball over the line is a chance you take, but once you are hitting the gaps, it is very important to know where the fielder is standing.”
With Kohli firing on all cylinders and the team playing at home, can India go on and become the first team to win the ICC World T20 at home? Only time will tell but one thing is for sure, the batsman will have a key role to play in India’s campaign.
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