Nowhere to hide: The continuing failures of Virat Kohli could spell the beginning of the end for India’s most successful Test captain ever

Rohit Mahajan

VIRAT KOHLI angry and animated in the Test match against England, sometimes seemed lost and distant as well. In January, in the ODIs against South Africa, Kohli seemed noticeably uninvolved with the game, and experts such as Sunil Gavaskar and Vernon Philander noted that captain KL Rahul seemed out of ideas and the Indian players were waiting for things to happen. Kohli, formerly capable of injecting the team with high-intensity currents, seemed lost at times. Was Kohli’s mind weighed down by worry or despair or anger?

If world No. 2 Test bowler Ashwin can be dropped from Test side then your No. 1 batter (Kohli) can also be dropped. I hope Kohli scores runs… At the moment, Virat Kohli isn’t playing like the Kohli we know, the one that has made him a legend through his performances. Kapil Dev, former Captain

Kohli had given up Test captaincy immediately before the ODI series; he had no option other than to quit since he had put himself in a spot by contradicting BCCI president Sourav Ganguly publicly: He had practically called Ganguly a liar by giving the lie to Ganguly’s claim that he had ‘personally requested’ Kohli to not give up the T20I team captaincy.

As captain, Kohli’s place in the Test team was a certainty; but after he gave up captaincy, he needed to again start scoring heavily to stay in the team. He’s in trouble on that count — in his last 32 innings across 18 Tests, Kohli has made only 872 runs at an average of 27.25, with four half-centuries. The average in home Tests in this duration is only 26.27. These are poor numbers by any standard, let alone Kohli’s own high standards — his pre-slump career average, before November 2019, was 54.97. It has come down to 49.53 now.

Indecision?

Kohli has often looked good, but he’s also often looked indecisive — how much far to commit with the front foot, how far wide to go to attack the widish ball, for instance. His dismissal in the first innings in the rescheduled fifth Test in Birmingham showed his indecision — he was uncertain whether to play a shot and withdrew the bat late and played onto his stumps. He’s had some bad luck, too, as in both innings of the Bengaluru Test against Sri Lanka in March, twice lbw to balls that shot through low.

But the upshot is that he’s low on scores; he’s not known to be ever low on confidence, but perhaps, as is often the case, his customary brashness and aggression are a cover for insecurity.

How would he deal with the low returns in international cricket? With the unforgiving BCCI keeping a close look at his performances, and with several young players coming through, Kohli is under the cosh. He acted his part while fielding during in the Birmingham Test, with gamesmanship and crazy celebrations and sledging of the English batsmen; but when you’re not scoring runs, such antics seem hollow and contrived — for everyone knows that it’s a very thin thread that holds the sword over your head, and the thread can snap any time.

Time, of course, is running out for Kohli. He turns 34 in November, and very often this is the age when a batsman’s career takes a decisive turn for the worse — the body is ravaged, the mind is fatigued, the reflexes are slow and the motivation begins to flag.

However, Kohli’s mind is steely, and he can turn things around and return to days of heavy scoring. In Ganguly himself, he has a great example — captain once, thrown out of the team soon after, Ganguly, with bloody-minded determination, returned to the Indian team after an 11-month hiatus and played 25 more Tests. After his return, he averaged 46.30, much better than the 40.78 he averaged before being dropped — a remarkable achievement.

Can Kohli do what Ganguly did?

Miracle workers

Novak Djokovic is likely to win his 21st Grand Slam title tonight at Wimbledon, to move one past Roger Federer and one behind Rafael Nadal. The other day, Nadal played through pain and won a magnificent victory in the quarterfinals — but he suffered a 7mm abdominal muscle tear and had to withdraw from the semifinals.

If Bjorn Borg had been a bit more bothered about winning big tournaments, he wouldn’t have retired at age 26; and, to be sure, though he retired at 26 in 1983, he was actually done with tennis at only 24 in 1981 — he played only five matches in 1982-1983.

If he’d been more keen about winning Grand Slams, surely Borg would have travelled for the Australian Open more than just once, that too as a 17-year-old. In those days the Australian Open was played on grass — Borg won five Wimbledon titles in a row and if he’d competed in Australia as well, he could well have ended up with at least 15 Grand Slam titles, instead of the 11 he did.

Borg did win 11 Grand Slams, so it can’t be said he lacked motivation — but he was sated early, while greater champions like Federer, Djokovic and Nadal aren’t satisfied even after winning 20. Nadal is 36, Djokovic 35, and Federer turns 41 next month. If Kohli — or anyone, indeed — wants to look for inspiration, these three are great examples of motivation, ambition and excellence.

If he can’t turn his career around, he’d be relegated to the loud but low-satisfaction IPL, and that would be a pity indeed.