Virat Kohli - The rise of a legend

Six years ago, Indian cricket was gifted with a bunch of youngsters who were very aggressive yet possessed stupendous cricketing talent. Yes, I am talking about the 2006 U-19 World Cup winning team which was composed of magnificent players, most of whom are being considered as the next carriers of the burden of expectations imposed by Indian fans. I would definitely not say that all of them are right now in the perfect place where they deserve to be. For instance, a great talent like Manish Pandey ought to be given more opportunities for all the wonderful knocks he had played both in the Ranji as well as in IPL for Karnataka. Another instance would be Pradeep Sangwan, who traumatized many batsmen with is mysterious swing bowling back then. Of course, fate is never kind to everyone and we can always hope to see them in the future, as they are still young and might perform well in the domestic tournaments. But one player of that team definitely deserves to be where he is right now, and deserves to ascend even higher as well. When he marshalled his troops to a historic U-19 WC win in 2006, India for the first time caught glimpse of Virat Kohli.

Not many would have then thought that this fierce youngster would be one of the stalwarts of the Indian top order just 3 years down the lane. The aggressive instincts he possessed, coupled with his controversial behaviour during and after the World Cup 2006 was sure to land him in trouble. He himself has admitted that he went down the wrong road after that World Cup win for quite some months. But thankfully for him and the Indian team, he was able to pull himself back altogether again and come back. His second real recognition was when he got into the IPL team, Royal Challengers Bangalore. Within 2 editions, he was one of their important players and a very promising one. His magnificent batting technique was appreciated by many, which coupled with his match winning knocks at Ranji level as well as IPL, gifted him a place in the Indian team. But it was not a great start for him as anybody who saw his game earlier, would have expected. Nevertheless, it was bound to happen in a short while and it did! The Australian and the Sri Lankan ODI series took him to new heights when he was promoted up the order and almost single-handedly won a couple of matches for India by scoring two magnificent centuries.

Soon, the knocks started to flow in a prolific manner. He started to mature with every game, playing almost all the shots in the book in his very own style. So much so that RCB backed his ability, and he was the only player to be retained by the team which composed of heavyweights like Kallis, Dravid and big hitters like Robin Uthappa and so on. He never let them down, and has played a significant role in the team’s run to 2 league finals and 1 semi-final in the last 3 years! His abilities were once again entrusted by the selectors when he was picked up for the ICC 2011 World Cup squad and was one of those players who played all the matches, which surely evinced the trust his captain had on him. He proved it right on his debut World Cup match itself, when he tore down the Bangladesh bowling and went on to score a well deserved hundred. His crucial knock against West Indies and a knock of 34 against Sri Lanka (when Indians were wobbling at 31-2) in the final were certainly better than the debut hundred, considering the pressure situation in which he arrived to the crease. But the best match-winning knock he has ever played till date is the one against Pakistan in the Asia cup, where he demolished the ‘strong’ pace and spin unit of Pakistan by scoring 183, helping India chase a target of 329 pretty easily.

His ability to bat in conditions other than the ones in the subcontinent was proved when he managed to score a century in England and was the only player to score a century in Australia. Both of these tours were horrific for the Indian team, as not many apart him were looking very comfortable in the foreign conditions. Even though it was a very controversial tour for him, thanks to his aggressive instincts, the Australian tour can be considered as the biggest bonus he has earned in his career. It made him a permanent player of the Indian squad and also earned him the post of vice-captain. The aggression he shows on the field is probably a thousand light years away from the mature temperament he shows at the same time while batting. A very few people can actually bat like that. The greatest of them I can recall, are Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting.

Right now, Virat Kohli is among the highly rated celebrities in India. He is third among the Indian cricketers in terms of earning brand endorsements, with only Tendulkar and Dhoni ahead of him. He is also termed as the next Sachin Tendulkar by some highly optimistic fans, keeping in view his prolific addition of runs and centuries. Such a distinction can’t obviously be made so early in his career. The real test would depend on how he comes back from bad form, manages injuries and criticism. He certainly has got the talent that is required to be listed among the legends in the long future. But whether he can stay on the pedestal he is currently being placed right now, depends entirely on him, and him only.