The enduring image of India winning the 50-over World Cup in 2011 is not necessarily the captain holding the trophy aloft, but something that happened minutes earlier. While the India team were walking along the ropes at the Wankhede Stadium, Virat Kohli hoisted Sachin Tendulkar on to his shoulders.
“He has carried the hopes of a nation for so many years,” Kohli said. “This was that gift from all of those people for him because he kept giving, giving, giving for India and I thought what better way at his home ground to realise his dream and then he gets a lap of honour. So, we felt like this is the ideal thing to do for him and we went ahead and did it.”
Kohli’s gesture was magnanimous but even he might not have realised how quickly the sands of time run down on an international career with Kohli now finding himself in Tendulkar’s position. The World Cup in India may well be Kohli’s last – although he sets high fitness standards and smiles wryly at any suggestion of sporting mortality – and this would be a good time for him to stamp his authority on the game.
When India won in 2011, Kohli made a hundred against Bangladesh and a half-century against West Indies but his contributions were largely those of a young batsman chipping in where he could. The situation is drastically different now. This is the moment when Kohli does a Tendulkar and becomes the team’s talisman. In 2011 Mahendra Singh Dhoni led India to World Cup glory but, for a lot of the country, the triumph was for Tendulkar.
This tournament is likewise a big one for Rohit Sharma, who is leading the team and will likely not feature in another such event. But even he knows that all eyes are on Kohli. There have been reports of rifts between the two, which have been swiftly denied, but the fact is they are a mutual admiration society.
While Kohli is the darling of the masses and harnesses social media to have a larger following than several countries put together, Rohit does not bother. Most recently Rohit said that his social media posts were limited to commercial obligations, and that his wife handled that side of things.
Which brings us to a delicious impasse. While Rohit might be the captain of the ship, and the opener setting the tone, Kohli could make this World Cup his own.
In the past, when he was captain, with Ravi Shastri backing him up as coach, Kohli was vocal about maintaining the primacy of Test cricket. With the backing of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Kohli’s team played as many Tests as possible, especially against England and Australia, to fly the flag for the format.
Now, with 50-over cricket at a crossroads, once again it falls on Kohli to breathe life into a format with his bat. His sometimes conservative approach has changed since he gave up the captaincy and has been reflected in the range of strokes he plays: the ramp shot, the flick over fine leg and even the reverse. For someone capable of extraordinary feats when batting correctly, these novelties are a bonus.
However, Kohli will know that his country and the world are not looking at his batting alone. He may deliver a bucketload of runs and India could still fall short. On the field, Kohli likes to believe that he leads India, even when he is not captain. He admonishes fielders, gets under the skin of opposition batters and even draws the ire of umpires and match referees.
This is because Kohli believes any team he plays for is essentially his. It is for this reason that this World Cup will be a tour of Kohli’s glories, as India play nine opponents in nine venues across the country.
Australia have traditionally brought out the best in him and so in Chennai on Sunday morning against his old foes, Kohli will begin a campaign that he believes belongs to him. India may well win this World Cup, with Rohit their captain, but King Kohli will own it.
