In the sphere of journalism where it’s a regular challenge to keep the clichés out of the book, Virat Kohli seems to be making our jobs more difficult by the day. Adjectives like ‘stupendous,’ ‘breathtaking’ seem to lose their relevance as the hottest property in international cricket continues to scale one peak after the other — and Wednesday night was no different.
A truncated game in the T20 format often becomes an exercise in tokenism, a joke of sorts dependent on the eccentricities of the Duckworth-Lewis method to decide the winner. The early indications were just that when Kings XI Punjab, Kohli’s opposition last night in Bengaluru, decided to field after winning the toss on the common wisdom of chasing is better in a rain-affected game.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain, however, ordained it in a different way. Sensing how crucial a win would be in the game to stay in the hunt for the play-offs, Kohli decided to take control in a way few can in international cricket today — of whom two happen to be his teammates in the Bangalore side in AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle.
The result was more mayhem and a slew of records: the first batsman to cross 4,000 career runs in IPL, a staggering 865 runs from 13 matches at an average of 86.50 so far (a first-ever 1000 runs in a season does not look remote at all) and the fourth century in a season. And all these, with a split webbing on his left hand which he sustained while fielding during the previous encounter against KKR that required seven stitches.
No other cricketer has yielded the same amount of written words as Kohli this year so far — on his craft in general, his art of finishing in the limited overs formats et al. The IPL may not exactly be the highest stage for an achiever of Kohli’s class, but the fact remains if there is one performer who has injected life almost single-handedly into the ninth edition of a somewhat lukewarm league, it’s been him.
The comparisons have been odious, to say the least, but if there is one category to measure the hunger for the game — then one has to admit that this temperamental Delhi youngster has already given his idol Sachin Tendulkar a serious run for his money. While it’s not possible for a modern day cricketer to last nearly a quarter of a century anymore, the fact that Kohli — at 27 — has underlined his status as the best batsman in the game today (and in all formats) should say that he is the man best suited to carry SRT’s legacy.
And before I sign off, here’s something on a personal note — qualify Kohli with whatever you will, but don’t call him the run-machine. The word ‘machine’ does not go with his personality — he is a supremely talented individual but with human frailties. Kohli may have often failed in the art of diplomacy with the media, but is the same person who quietly pays obeisance to his childhood coach with a car as gift or readily agrees to do an awareness campaign for free for schoolchildren in Dubai.
For a sport so guilty of overkill and political correctness from it’s stars, cricket badly needs a Virat Kohli!
