Virat Kohli and his Caribbean tryst with life coming full circle

He finds considerable solace in Laxman’s words: “He is a fabulous cricketer and has improved as a batsman in the last two years. He has played well in various tough situations in ODIs. It shows he is improving with every match. He will be a great player to watch out for, a match-winner for the country.” The word great and Kohli are once again juxtaposed and surely, Laxman is no hollow judge of talent. The unimpressive first impressions meant he bench-warmed throughout the England tour, even as most other batsmen, even the vaunted ones, struggled, and even as Suresh Raina somehow kept his spot in the entire series.

READ: 1st Test, Day 1 – Embers after spitfire spell

June 30, 2013, Kingston

Captaincy seeks him out, inadvertently. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is injured in the course of the tri-series opener against West Indies and vice-captain Kohli is suddenly thrust with captaincy duties, giving him little time to get internalised with the role. He freezes first, but there are early signs of his leitmotif as captain. He sets attacking fields, takes inspired decisions (like bringing on part-timer Suresh Raina to break a resolute eighth-wicket partnership) and keeps egging on his bowlers. Later, he admits it was a grim revelation of the baggages that come with captaincy. “I have captained in the IPL but that’s a Twenty20 game. This was totally unexpected. It was more thinking on the feet. It was a good experience for me,” he confided.

Two days later, on his full-match as skipper, he endures a stinging baptism. Almost every tactic of his gloriously misfires. His bowlers are hardly compliant, erring with their lengths and lines. His practised on-field restrain soon gave away to the then-usual sneering and sniggering, grimacing and frowning. By the time Sri Lanka rattled up 348 runs on the board, Kohli had lost his cool entirely. Even his batting doesn’t redeem his captaincy — he stomps his bat onto the ground after playing an uncharacteristic hook shot to get out — as India lost by a massive margin of 161 runs. You felt, Kohli is still too callow to be handed over captaincy duties. His fiery temperament that day seemed ill-disposed for a fine leader of men, and perhaps for the first time in his career he explicitly bucked under pressure. He seemed to need further apprenticeship under Dhoni.

Everything he touched that day seemed lead. He, though, didn’t defend his mistakes. “I learnt a lot of things today though it was a very tough day in the office. I realised that managing eleven internationals is a lot different from dealing with seven domestic players and four internationals, as in the IPL. Also, you are playing against eleven internationals and you can’t afford to give them too many chances. I know I should maintain my calm and composure, and not be as expressive as I used to be when I was just a player,” he emphasised. He is clearly hurt by the defeat, but there was a certain defiance that a defeat wouldn’t defeat him.

He vouches to make amends. And he did make amends. He shows he’s a quick learner. In the next match against West Indies, with India requiring bonus points to stay afloat, he blasts a hundred off 83 balls, celebrates with the repose of a mystique, without venturing into any expletive-laden machismo, and boots it with shrewd field settings and foresightful bowling changes. The edginess suddenly vanishes, and he is more of his usual vibrant self on the field. For the first time on this tour, he seemed to be genuinely enjoying his captaincy. “I liked the extra responsibility and the challenge captaincy brings,” he said.

Kohli leads India to the final with another bonus-point win, over Sri Lanka. Dhoni resumes charge in the final, but Kohli has laid out the philosophy he would embrace when he ultimately replaces him.

July 21, 2016, Antigua

Kohli has returned to the Caribbean, wiser, worldly-wise and a man on his own. The series is not about the circle coming full for him, for Kohli’s circle of life seems to move on a linearly upward path, or about the making of Kohli the skipper, for he has already established himself as a fine leader. It would be about captain Virat embarking on a ruthless conquest of the cricketing globe

The trip also affords him to indulge in a little nostalgia. He admits as much: “It’s a memorable place for me. I made my Test debut here. It’s nice to comeback after so many years, and having played so many Test matches all over the world in between. Obviously, I had improved as a Test cricketer. Obviously I had little clue about Test cricket. I came here and found out a lot about the format and what the challenges were at that stage. This is one place that made me realise what you needed to improve as far as Test cricket was concerned. I’ve been here a couple of times after that, but never played Test cricket afterwards. So it’s a nice place to come and play. The atmosphere is really good, people like cricket, they support it. I’m really excited to play a Test match here after so long.”

It would be a compelling narrative if this Caribbean tour heralds something special for him — becoming the first Indian captain to win more than one Test here would be a nice statistical memento to start with.