Virat kohli
The most important man in Indian cricket – there is possibly no other, or more apt, way to describe Virat Kohli.
To celebrate the man who gives India a reason to rejoice so very often, The Quint has put together this compilation on the Virat we all know, and a little of the Virat that we don't.
What were his dreams before he first made headlines? Who does he credit his cricketing career to? What’s he like, when he's around friends and family? How much time does he devote to cricket when he's off the field? How much does he love his fans? Twenty-nine years of this legend in the making.
Here’s the other side of the Virat fairytale.
Virat, The Batsman : -
There are stars, there are superstars, and then there is Virat Kohli. The stylish right-handed batsman is regarded as one of the best players in the world and the fact that he’s breaking a Sachin Tendulkar record at regular intervals means that the ‘legend’ status isn’t too far off.
Also, remember, he's just 29. As of today.
Virat reached a new career high during the ODI against New Zealand in October 2017. On his way to a vital 113, he created the record for the fastest batsman to smash 9000 ODI runs. The 194 matches he needed to get to the milestone broke AB de Villiers' previous record – at 205.
Virat's current batting average in one-day cricket (55.74) is better than any player in history. His strike rate of 91.73 puts him ahead of his contemporaries, save for AB de Villiers.
So, what went into the making of Virat, the batsman? How has he managed to become a supreme force in the Indian batting line-up?
Kohli's batsmanship appears to be driven by the challenges ahead of him. The tougher the challenge, the better the batsman Kohli is on the day.
In just 202 ODIs, he already holds the record for the most centuries (19) in successful chases. When there is a target in front of the Delhi lad, he always paces his innings well and is determined to stay on till the end to take the team over the line.
Apart from his determination and hard work, the Indian captain has also been excellent at detecting flaws in his technique and finding solutions for them throughout his career. Even in Tests, Virat Kohli’s away average of 45.13 is only a little lower than his career average of 49.55. He has notched a hundred in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and West Indies.
Virat, The Son : -
A relationship like no other is what India owes this great cricketer to.
Two decades ago, Prem Kohli was advised by his neighbors to move his son’s evening pastime of breaking the colony windows to a more institutional set up. A lawyer by profession, it could well have been advice that Prem chose to ignore, but he saw something in his son.
That something, two decades later, is the biggest asset of the Indian dressing room.
That something, one decade after his passing, is Prem Kohli’s greatest legacy.
And Virat will never let you forget that.
It may be posts on his Instagram account, that slight bow when he celebrates his major feats but Virat will remind you every chance he gets, that we owe all the runs he scores to his father, and the support he gave his son’s dreams.
Virat’s metamorphosis on the cricket field, though, has had its effect on the life he shares with his family – a grueling calendar, months on the road, and the son, the uncle, or the brother Virat misses out on being while on tour. But that one regular call home is always something he never skips.
“Our mother doesn’t go out of the house often but whenever Virat calls me when he’s on tour, he makes it a point to remind me to take care of her and asks if she’s with me or if she needs anything,” says Virat’s brother Vikas Kohli.
Having walked into the West Delhi Cricket Academy together almost two decades ago, Vikas has seen his younger brother transform into a world-class cricketer, but it’s his loving side that he speaks most fondly of.
Virat, The Student : -
Virat Kohli’s career has seen a number of transitions. From a young boy learning to pick up the bat, to the captain of the Under-19 World Cup winning team, to winning the ICC World Cup and now, as Captain of the Indian cricket team. It has been a meteoric rise up the ranks for a boy who had no cricket in his blood; only a family who believed in him, and a coach who had a vision.
Rajkumar Sharma opened his West Delhi Cricket Academy over two decades ago, and on the first day of registration had a father bring his two sons to the ground. A father with two sons, like many other. Only, Rajkumar knew better.
Having groomed India’s Test skipper in his formative years and remained his close confidant over many more, Rajkumar is an integral part of Virat Kohli’s support system. The Quint caught up with the coach to try and capture the relationship that gave birth to India’s Test skipper. Here is an excerpt from our interview:
Q. What is your first memory of Virat Kohli? How old was he when you first met him? What were your first impressions like?
He was nine/nine-and-a-half-years-old when he came to me. When we started our academy in Paschim Vihar, he was one of the first few students we enrolled. On the first day of registration he came with his brother. His father brought him there.
Q. When was the first time you had a feeling that Virat will make it big in international cricket?
After Virat joined the Academy, in about 15-20 days, I could make out that he was different from others. He was an extremely talented and gifted cricketer. When he got his first double hundred in the under-15 category, that was when I was sure he had cemented his place in the Delhi team.
Q. The day Virat's father passed away, he called you and asked whether he should go and continue playing the Ranji game. What did you say to him?
Virat’s father was a very nice human being. He was also very dear to me. He was a very passionate cricket fan. I was out of India when he (Virat Kohli) called me. He was crying when he told me the news. I asked him what he thinks he should be doing, and his response was ‘I think I should play’. I encouraged him and told him that this is the time to show your character. That was the biggest thing any cricketer could have done - his father’s body was at home and he went to play for his state.
Virat, The Captain : -
Numbers by themselves cannot paint an accurate picture of the transformation captaincy has brought to Virat Kohli’s game. However, being the resident statistician, it is through numbers that I unravel this facet of Virat’s career.
Captaincy came to Virat Kohli as a bolt from the blue; it was in December 2014, when MS Dhoni failed to recover from a thumb injury and had to miss the opening Test match in Adelaide, that Kohli was first handed the captaincy. He began with a bang, scoring hundreds in both innings.
Two Tests later, after MS Dhoni announced a shock retirement after the third Test match, Virat again held the reigns. And yet again, he rose to the responsibility in style, and accomplished something no other captain had achieved in Test history; he scored a third consecutive century in his third innings as Indian captain.
Virat thrives on responsibility and therefore his incredible numbers as captain should come as no surprise. In the 29 matches he’s played as India’s Test captain, he has scored ten centuries, as opposed to the seven the made in his 31 outings under other skippers.
Whether it is just him maturing with age or being spurred on by the additional responsibility, Virat has developed a big hunger for runs in the last few years. A drive that’s most evident in his ability to convert fifties into big scores at a pleasantly alarming rate, of late.
Before becoming captain, he had only scored seven Test centuries in 55 innings – or one every eight innings. But since becoming captain, that frequency has risen to a century nearly every four innings. What’s more, in the last two years since being handed the captaincy, Virat not just scored his first double century, but has taken the tally to four.
To put Virat’s accomplishments as captain in the context of Indian Test cricket history, after 29 Tests no other Indian skipper has scored more runs, or centuries. And the list includes some illustrious names like Sunil Gavaskar and MAK Pataudi.
