Do great batsmen demand — and require — greater understanding, and more time to find their form than the journeyman? It is a question that sometimes divides a nation, as it did India when Sachin Tendulkar was nearing the end of his career. And now it is happening with Virat Kohli.
Perhaps it is our national obsession with individual centuries that is part of the reason. That 100th international century kept eluding Tendulkar for weeks and months before he put a nation out of its misery by scoring one in Bangladesh. Tellingly, it came in a match that India lost. But no one seemed to notice. Individual success trumped team failure.
Kohli is going through a bad patch as sportsmen do, but calls for his head are premature, ungenerous and frankly makes no cricketing sense.
In sport, a break in continuity doesn’t mean the end. It takes just one big innings, perhaps his 71st international century (to satisfy something in our national psyche), and everybody will be wondering what the fuss was all about.
Statistically similar
Watching Kohli in England in 2022 was only statistically like watching him in England in 2014. On that occasion, James Anderson had worked him out, finding either edge of his bat outside the off stump ensuring a highest of only 39 in ten Test innings. Kohli got out while looking like getting out.
This time it has been different. He has got out even as he has looked to be getting into his stride. Then, with a rare combination of diffidence and brashness, he would play away from his body and edge the ball. The self-doubt was of a man who has not made an international century in two and a half years, the assurance of one who has hit 70 of them around the world.
As India’s most successful captain and one of their three greatest batsmen (Sunil Gavaskar and Tendulkar being the other two), Kohli’s legacy is secure. His bad patch (measured only in terms of centuries scored) has lasted two and a half years. Yet even in that dark phase, he has scored over 2500 runs in 79 innings across formats with an average of 35.5, which is just under Chris Gayle’s career average and higher than that of Sanath Jayasuriya, Yuvraj Singh and Jos Buttler. That should give us a perspective.
Support and understanding
Only 15 players have played more than his 463 international matches, and none of them averages over 50. Kohli averages 53. You can’t, of course, select a player only onpast record. And Kohli batting like a classical song being played at the wrong speed does give hope to those waiting in the wings. But he has the support and understanding of the two men who matter most, skipper Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid; at anyrate, he has too much pride in his performance to be a burden on the team.
After Manchester, the questions have become louder: is this run a result of technical deficiencies, emotional uncertainty, tiredness, trust issues, physical shortcomings (like eyesight), the pressures of the modern game or has the young man (Kohli is only 33) gone stale with too much cricket?
Is it time for the batsman to choose between formats, letting go of white ball cricket to focus on the red? Current players ask themselves this question at some point in their careers.
Ben Stokes, two years younger than Kohli, announced his retirement from ODI, saying that playing three formats is “unsustainable.” These are probably the two most competitive players in international cricket. The pressure of being a Tendulkar or a Kohli is far greater than most people can imagine. It is not just the public expectations which are often unrealistic, the individual too sets very high standards for himself. Sometimes the performances in the first three-quarters of your career can be a burden in the last quarter. The great sometimes becomes the enemy of the very good.
Giving it his all
Kohli is the kind of player who throws everything into everything. Fitness and motivation remain high. If he discovers his touch in any one format, he will be back on a roll across all of them. He has done it before. To give up something, in his world, would be an admission of failure, for he has always liked to do it his way. In this he is like Tendulkar.
A little over a decade ago when Tendulkar was going through a similar phase, I had suggested he give up white ball cricket. He was older than Kohli is — which tells us how quickly the pressures can get to you now — and was carrying injuries besides. Sachin then went on to have a purple period, scoring ODI’s first double century.
When great players have something to prove, it is best to leave them alone and give them the chance to do so!
