‘Form is temporary, class is permanent’. This is one line that we hear quite often in the context of cricket. Over the years, even the greatest cricketers have had a rough patch in their respective careers and have come out stronger from that. However, when you are not just ‘another’ cricketer but quite literally a modern-day legend hailed by many as the best in the world, it’s only normal that the noise around you will be a lot more. When the young lad from Delhi made his debut in ODI cricket against Sri Lanka before 2010, not many would have thought that 10 years down the line, people would consider him ‘important’ enough to be compared to the ‘God Of Cricket’ aka Sachin Tendulkar.
Although Kohli didn’t really ‘burst’ into the scene like how 16-year-old Tendulkar gained instant limelight for his game against Pakistan, he started to show sparks of a great cricketer for the first time in the year 2012. Do you all remember the CB tri-series for which India, Australia and Sri Lanka competed against each other? There’s no Indian cricket fan who can perhaps forget the way Kohli smoked Lasith Malinga out of the park for boundaries and sixes as per his whims and fancies. It was a crucial game where India had to chase 300 odd runs in less than 40 overs to qualify for the final. Just when everyone started to write India off, VK came to bat and proved to the world that it’s not over until he wants it to be over. That was perhaps the ‘first sign’ ever of what Virat Kohli is capable of doing in International cricket. And from there onwards, he never looked back.
World cricket took notice of ‘King Kohli’ pretty easily because of his consistency. Although the best cricketers suffer a dip in form quite often when they play for a long duration, Virat Kohli proved to the world that he’s a different breed altogether. His consistency was at a different level from 2012-2020. He was scoring centuries and 50s across every format, registering records one by one and doing everything great to be established as the best batsman in modern-day cricket. What separated Kohli from most of his other contemporaries was his ability to let his bat do the talk despite having heated conversations on the field. He’s been considered as a ‘chase master’ for all the right reasons and who can forget the way he literally dominated Mitchell Johnson against Australia in their home turf during the Test series in 2018. However, it seems like Covid-19 break and a lot of speculation and talking around him hasn’t helped Virat Kohli’s game to a great extent. He is now a doting father to a young girl called Vamika and he now has the responsibility to serve his country and family both at the same time. However, come what may, one is living in a fool’s paradise if they co-relate the same with Kohli’s dip in form.
For someone of his stature, not having a single century in International cricket for more than a year seems rather bizarre, doesn’t it? Yes, even the great Sachin Tendulkar faced a dip in form on multiple occasions but it perhaps never went on for such a long stretch. 5 years ago, if people were asked to imagine an International Indian cricket squad without Virat Kohli, literally any fan would be feeling ‘bonkers’ to imagine that. However, unfortunately, the inconsistency has been for quite long and perhaps long enough for those conversations to build up ‘outside the field’. With the young pool of talent which team India have, especially for T20I cricket, it won’t be wrong to say that Virat Kohli’s place in the squad doesn’t come off as an ‘automatic’ choice, something that would be the case few years back. A lot of cricket experts all over the world are of the opinion that team India would be ‘good enough’ to compete in Australia during the World Cup without Kohli. However, statistics never lie and when it comes to big tournaments, you can’t ignore them at all.
Yes, King Kohli is having a rough patch and things aren’t looking hunky-dory at his end. But hey, when the going gets ‘tough’, the ‘tough’ gets going as well, don’t they? We have seen Virat Kohli rise like a phoenix from the ashes every time he has been looked down upon by critics and with age still being in his side, he’s got no reason to not repeat the same history. Add to that, whenever it’s a World Cup, the young blokes more often than not tend to get nervous and that’s when a handy and experienced ‘leadership group’ to mentor the youngsters come into play. No matter what form Kohli is going through, his past experience will anyway come in handy to build confidence in the youngsters about how to play and adapt to the quick and brisk, hard pitches of Australia. Add to that, Virat Kohli’s style of cricket is such that hard surfaces where the ball comes to the bat nicely suit his fame. Off-late, he’s been playing a lot in comparatively slower pitches of UAE and India. As far as England is concerned, we know that playing swing isn’t his biggest strength. However, when it comes to fast-paced tracks where the ball comes nicely onto the bat and where strokes can be played trusting the bounce of the surface, Virat has been an absolute genius. Remember some of his great knocks in the last Test series against South Africa? Just like Australia, South African pitches too are hard by nature. Although Kohli didn’t score a century, he got close to one multiple time in the Test series and showed signs of good form. With similar pitches going on in Australia, you never know what he can be capable of. Add to that, Virat’s a livewire on the field and you cannot ignore experience on a whole. It’s a tried and tested formula that where talent fails to make a niche, experience comes in handy. Virat has the experience of playing the majority of the bowlers across different teams till now and you simply cannot ignore that when you travel abroad for a big tournament like this.
