Virat Kohli plays a strange innings on a strange day

The entire world is in a massive state of flux right now. Extremism is greater than it’s ever been before. The middle path, or what Robert Frost would call the ‘road taken’ has never felt more deserted. You see it in front of you, from the most minuscule and trivial matters to those that have life altering consequences.

It’s either all in or nothing at all.

Cricket hasn’t been immune to this trend either. Purists love their Test matches and the newer lot seem bothered about only the blink and it’s over T20s. ODIs are this middle path, not as strenuous as Tests and not as hectic as T20s, not a strength of endurance and not a high-risk format either. They are the middle aged parents when the world bothers about the charm of the older generation and the exuberance of the kids. Sidelined, unloved.

While tournaments like the Champions Trophy are widely followed and victories like the one by Pakistan remind us why our sport is so beautiful, they succeed because they have some context, some end in sight. Most ODIs don’t, and that is why they’re dying.

This series between India and West Indies is just one of those meaningless series, bereft of any real value. A year down the line and most don’t remember the first thing about series like these.

Players will speak about its importance in the same monotonous manner their PR agencies train them to, but you see it in their body language. They take it easy, look distracted, disinterested and just seem to be going through the motions like machines.

Virat Kohli doesn’t do that. He has that fire burning in his eyes each time he steps out on the field. He celebrates aggressively, he chats up the batsmen and constantly converses with his bowlers.

While batting, his eyes scout the field relentlessly; his bat twirling increases as he spends more time at the wicket and his mind is always working on overdrive, switching between where to place the ball, how many runs to score by the end of the over and which bowler to target amongst other things.

He is always in the game. Like it or not, he’s always making his presence felt, he’s there on your TV screens practically every second ball, rapidly giving an authentic meaning to the Kohli-cam. No matter what you think of him, his work ethic, his commitment and his passion for the sport is something you can never deny. Not now, not ever.

Yesterday was different though, a very evident kind of different. Kohli, for the first time, seemed under the weather, interest wise. Reserved, burdened, uncomfortable, lost; all at the same time.

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ODIs which lack context and especially those played on sluggish tracks with inconsistent weather are nauseating, boring to the point of death.

But yesterday was even worse off than normal. It was excruciating. It made for some of the most annoying, frustrating and useless cricket I’ve ever seen. It is on days like these that I wish I had never committed myself to covering cricket matches. It became this bad.

Kohli seemed off from the moment that he came in to bat. Even before that actually, at the toss and the pre-match presser.

His walk is usually brisk, his face animated and the opposing captain is greeted with a firm, Gen X type handshake cum fist bump cum hand hug. Today saw none of that.

We should have known it.

The past week has been treacherous for Kohli. He lead India to a loss in the Champions Trophy final, that too against a long time rivals Pakistan, was outclassed by Mohammad Amir, saw his team’s coach resign and blame it all on him, and witnessed the collective abuse heaped on him by people all over for having tarnished the image of an Indian cricket legend.

Kohli could not lead his side to victory in the Champions Trophy final

Kohli is normally an unruffled character. What happens off the field has never impacted his performances on it. His determination and his focus are second to none. He made a match saving 90 for Delhi as an 18-year-old the day after his father died.

He was one of two Indian cricketers who attended Phillip Hughes’ funeral, someone whom he considered a good friend, and went and scored two centuries in a Test match next week, where he also lead India for the first time. After Australian cricketers and spectators had abused and jeered him on his first tour there, picking on his continuous failures, after he flipped the bird at them, he went out and scored a career-defining 75 at Perth and followed it up with his first Test century at Adelaide.

This struggle in the middle, where he was looking so uncertain of himself and his game lead me to ponder as to what was different this time; about why this Kumble issue was haunting him so much.

Maybe I am wrong, maybe not, but to me, it seems that Kohli thrives on the love he gets, it’s what keeps him going. That’s the thing with these maverick, outspoken and unabashed personalities. Think Kevin Pietersen, Michael Clarke or Andrew Flintoff. All they crave is the love of the people, they don’t want to be just cricketers, they want to be heartthrobs, objects of desire and fantasy for those who follow this sport and even those that do not.

After the initial stages of his career when he was branded as a brat, when his work ethic was questionable, as was his behaviour off the field, Kohli had turned it around in quite a magnificent manner. He transformed his life and career in a manner hardly believable.

He took to fitness like a duck to water, he became as rigid with his routine as political parties’ spokespersons are when they don’t have any answers and the runs flowed like blood from a stabbing wound. The captaincy came, world records were broken, he became an ideal standard in terms of work ethic and fitness levels.

The fallout with Kumble seems to be affecting Kohli on the field

But most importantly, public opinion about him changed, and changed spectacularly. If it was Sachin in the 1990s and Dhoni in the 2000s, then it was Kohli in the 2010s. As if it were WWE and not cricket, a heel turned into a face and fell into the arms of the melted public. Kohli had matured and he was lovable. He was our megastar, one who could do no wrong.

Kohli relished this love, it’s what kept him going. Endless adoration, limitless support. He may say he doesn’t care about what people think of him, but everyone does. And they all love being heroes. Personalities like Kohli even more so.

And that’s why this Kumble saga is affecting him as badly as it is. The jury was hung when the rumours of a rift between him and Kumble were unconfirmed but swung massively the day Kumble resigned.

Punches were aimed at Kohli left, right and centre once Kumble explicitly said that the Indian skipper was responsible for him not being able to continue as the Indian coach, that the fact that Kohli didn’t like his coaching style was central to him handing in his resignation.

Oh! He’s so arrogant, this son of a gun. What does he think of himself anyway? Who the hell is he to stand up to someone like Kumble? Why hasn’t he been sacked? He’s nothing compared to the legend who’s image he has tarnished.

The punches kept on coming, as did the kicks and then the more gruesome manoeuvres. All of a sudden, it felt like a rewind to his brattish days, when the last thing he got from the public was love.

In one stroke, the image he tried so hard to build was not just punctured, but torn into pieces and set ablaze.

And this lack of love is what he fears, this is what is unsettling him so much. He prospers because of it, he plays best when he can be a hero and is treated like one, he knows no other way now.

All he wants is love. All he needs is love.

And he’s not getting any at this time. Everyone’s with Kumble, and until proven otherwise, maybe rightly so.

He looks defeated, more than he ever has any time until now. We’ll probably never get to hear his side of the story, or that of his teammates who too were reportedly intimidated by Kumble. At least not until he’s contracted by the BCCI.

Maybe that hurts him too.

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Kohli has toured the West Indies thrice already. He has happy memories from each of the tours. He made his Test debut on his first one here in 2011, he captained India for the first time ever in 2013 and made his first international double hundred in 2016.

If the first game is anything to go by, no part of this tour will give him any happy memories.

As he bats, he looks dazed, like a man wandering aimlessly in the woods. His feet are not moving well, his hands are not in coordination with his mind and he fails to pick the bowlers from the hand.

Kohli managed just one boundary in his innings of 47

Even his running, normally ultra aggressive is lacking in intent and his usual standards of speed remain untouched.

He hits just one boundary in 47 balls and strikes at under 70.

Kohli has recently lost the love of a majority of the cricket watching public. He may get it back. He may not.

Either way, it seems to have broken that impenetrable mind of his.

A maligned player, who craves love and fears he won’t get it, plays in an uncharacteristically dazed manner in an inconsequential ODI. And suddenly the meaningless ODI has some meaning.

It’s a strange kind of an innings. It’s a strange kind of a day.