Virat Kohli: Within striking distance of an elite club

In sport, there is a very famous cliché that records are meant to broken. Over the last century, global sports has seen megastars coming and raising the benchmark of excellence for others to emulate. Once in a quarter century comes a sporting icon who is a cut above the rest and becomes the undisputed king of their game.

Muhammad Ali became the most accomplished heavyweight boxing with his enormous punching power and lighting quick footwork. Jamaican speed demon Usain Bolt was lighting quick on the race tracks and dominated Olympic sprints the way they had never been done before.

Swiss tennis maestro Roger Federer’s mesmerising skill and finesse with the racquet helped him conquer numerous opponents and defy age to stack up a record 20 Grand Slams. Michael Jordan leapt like a tiger in the air and dominated the highly competitive NBA point scoring charts for decades. In the gentleman’s game, we had Sir Donald Bradman whose staggering consistency with the willow was a statistical abnormality.

In India, where cricket is a religion and the results of the national team define the happiness index of the nation, it certainly is not easy to be a megastar especially when there has been a rich legacy of the subcontinent giant in producing some of the greatest stalwarts in the sport. The ‘Little Master’ Sunil Gavaskar, known as the epitome of defensive batting tamed the best of pace attacks at the peaks of their prowess and stood like a rock between victory and defeat for India. Kapil Dev, the charismatic all-rounder hailed as the most gifted cricketer with both willow and the red cherry led India’s to its maiden World Cup triumph in 1983.

Sachin Tendulkar earned a demi-god status among die-hard Indian fans with his prodigious run-scoring exploits, carrying the immense burden of expectations of the passionate Indian fans for over two decade. So at the turn of the century, one question which naturally sprung up among the cricket fans was, who would be the next big cricket star in India?

Virender Sehwag certainly went onto become one of the most destructive openers in white ball cricket and MS Dhoni earned the tag of being the best wicket keeper batsman of his generation. Then came along a spirited young cricketer with a heart of a fighter from one of India’s leading cricket stables, Delhi. After scoring heaps of runs in junior cricket, he led India to glory at the 2008 ICC Under 19 World Cup and made his cricketing skills noticeable to the national selectors. Virat Kohli had arrived on the international stage and was destined to play a long innings donning the Indian jersey.

Kohli’s start in one day international cricket wasn’t one he had dreamt off and a string of mediocre scores led to a temporary ouster from the national team. He came back with a bang scoring a breezy ton against Sri Lanka at home and followed it up with a stellar show with the bat in a Tri Series at Bangladesh.

The young turk had show first signs of belonging at the highest level and never looked back again. Kohli produced a string of good scores against Australia and New Zealand in bilateral series at home and cemented his place in India’s ODI team. He went into the 20111 ICC World Cup with a rich vein of form and played a crucial knock in India’s successful run chase against Sri Lanka in the grand finale.

With greats like Sachin, Dravid and Sehwag bidding adieu to the game, young Virat took over as the torchbearer of India’s great batting legacy. Kohli slowly but surely started making meaningful contributions and did enough with the willow to make the coveted number three position his own. He soon earned a reputation of being a consistent run-getter and a tough competitor who laid a prize on his wicket and was tough to dismiss, once he had his eyes set.

A striking feature of Kohli’s batting from the very start has been his penchant to score match-winning tons. Like all great batsmen, once Kohli gets a start, he makes it count with a big score. A conventional stroke maker who likes to hit the ball along the ground, Kohli is equipped with a wide range of shorts to pierce the field and also has the lofted shots in his armoury. Thanks to his stable head position, tremendous balance and nimble footwork, he is equally at ease in playing pace or spin and plays the ball to its merit.

He looks a class apart with those trademarks flicks on the leg side and can manoeuvre the field as per his liking. The Indian ODI skipper leads by example with his supreme fitness level and can give any youngster a run for their money with his lightning quick running between the wickets.

Virat has been rightfully been hailed as the ‘Chase Master’ for his ability to help team India chase down some herculean totals. A perfectionist at pacing his innings, Virat knows just when to accumulate the runs and when to change gears and step on the acceleration button. He keeps his cool under pressure and more often than not to takes the team across the finishing line. There are no surprises that Kohli has the most tons while chasing in ODI cricket.

It is often said that a great leader leads from front and Kohli has lived up to it every bit. The Indian skipper has been the leading run scorer for the ‘Men in Blue’ in the last five ODI seasons barring 2015. He undoubtedly has been the lynchpin of the Indian batting along with the lethal opening duo of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma.

Kohli’s brilliant run-scoring form has made critics and fans rank him as the greatest ODI batsman in the world at the moment. A title which hasn’t been easy to win as he faces stiff competition from some world class stroke makers in Kane Williamson, Steve Smith, David Warner, Joe Root, Hashim Amla, Quinton De Cock and Babar Azam to name a few.

Kohli has taken his batting to another level and is enjoying a golden run of form while captaining India in ODIs. Only a select few cricketers have been able to deliver with the bat while donning the captain’s role. With 14 tons as Indian skipper, Virat is only second to Ricky Ponting with most centuries as skipper in ODI cricket.

Kohli’s mind-boggling numbers in ODI cricket are a testimony to his superlative consistency with the willow. With just under 10000 ODI runs at an average of 58.69, Kohli’s statistics in ODI cricket are semi Bradmansque. His consistency in run scoring across different conditions and well as stacking up tons against quality attacks is simply unmatchable.

Virat Kohli’s stellar form with the bat has been a major factor in India being one of the most formidable one-day teams over the last five years. Kohli spearheads a potent Indian batting unit which boasts of quality stroke-makers in Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya.

When Kohli bats against the West Indies in the second ODI of the ongoing series at Vishakapatnam, Kohli would need 81 runs to become the fastest batsman to scale the 10000-run milestone in limited overs cricket. Once he gets past the landmark, Kohli would join an elite league of batting greats in Sachin, Ponting, Lara, Ganguly, Jayasuriya, Sangakkara, to name a few.

The legend of Kohli grows with every innings he plays. With his scintillating batting form which seems never-ending and age on his side, he could possibly have a go at Sachin Tendulkar’s run-scoring record in ODIs and end up being the most successful batsman in one-day internationals.

If one goes into hindsight, Virat Kohli by any means wasn’t the most talented stroke maker but he had the zeal and burning ambition to fine tune his skills and develop himself into a near to perfect batting machine. One can fairly sum up that Virat Kohli has proved that if one has the determination, will and tenacity to succeed in life, nothing is impossible.