Portrait of Virat Kohli – The escape artist

(Before 2009), I did not have so much belief in my game — about being able to cover up later in the innings. But now I have started to realise that I have the ability to catch up with the required rate later on. And that is what gives me the best chance of going out there and doing the same thing again and again, because I back my game.”
— Virat Kohli, in 2015

As a batsman, Virat Kohli is not peerless in the way Sachin Tendulkar was (with the exception of Brian Lara). There are equally — and arguably — more skillful, destructive and versatile batsmen in world cricket than the Indian right-hander. Chris Gayle can emasculate the best of attacks wearing the same vacant expression he perhaps dons when looking out of the team-bus window. The only direction AB de Villiers cannot send the ball to is perhaps beneath his feet. Steven Smith can hypnotize veteran bowlers like a pied piper, forcing them to bowl at him on the adjacent pitch when his abandoned, unprotected stumps are begging to be hit. Kane Williamson and Joe Root have enhanced their reputations manifold in the last couple of years, having made tons of runs across formats, against all manner of attacks and on all kinds of pitches. But none of them strides on to the pitch in a chase with such supreme self-belief as Kohli does. Yet, it’s not overconfidence. He remains detached enough to be aware of the situation. Let’s just say he knows himself fully well, something which can be said of few people. It reflects in his batsmanship when he is chasing a target. He walks out at the fall of Shikhar Dhawan/Rohit Sharma, and sees the opposition snare Rohit Sharma/Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina. India are 8/3, or 23/3, or 49/3, chasing 84, or 119, or 161. But Kohli remains calm, almost quarantined to the excitement and panic around him. He backs his game. The opposition just doesn’t get it, and it gets to them. But what exactly is his game?

***

The game plan in my initial days in T20 was to get 10 off 10 and then take off. But I realised that I don’t have the kind of shots to hit big sixes. I have come to terms with the fact that I cannot hit big sixes, so I focus on boundaries.”
—Virat Kohli, in 2016

“I don’t feel the need to play extravagant shots… For me it’s important to play low risk cricket for the team and yet maintaining my aggressive intent. It’s the balance I’ve always worked on.”
—Virat Kohli, in 2014

India have lost Dhawan. The metronomical Josh Hazlewood seems to be hitting his straps. He tests Kohli in the corridor. The Indian batsman has had a few well-documented problems in the area in the past. But he strides out and meets the first ball confidently. The second ball is closer. It’s on the off-stump. Kohli leans across and deliciously flicks the ball towards an unmanned midwicket for a four. The third ball is full and outside off, and Kohli reaches out and times it impeccably past backward point for a four. He is not hacking the ball. The timing and the placement are the key. It must be disheartening for Hazelwood, as ‘good’ deliveries were being sent outside the boundary.

Last month at the Asia Cup, Mohammad Amir too suffered the same fate. After riding out the initial storm, Kohli clipped the left-arm pacer off his hips past the square-leg fielder and then exquisitely drove the next ball through covers. At that point, Pakistan knew they were out of the game.

Lately, Kohli appears to have cut down on his inside-out lofted over extra cover. It was his signature stroke for long. But it is risky shot to execute early on in the innings. He now prefers the surefootedness of keeping the ball on the ground. On Sunday, the only fraction of a chance — if at all — he offered was when he lofted Glenn Maxwell over long off. He hadn’t quite middled it, but luckily the ball still sailed over.

Mostly, his are textbook cricketing shots. You never see him crouching wide outside the off-stump, with the bat between his legs, in an attempt to scoop the ball over the the keeper — which is almost de rigueur for batsmen these days in the limited-overs formats. It’s a risky shot. The chances of a dot ball or getting out are more than the odds of getting a four or more. The same with the reverse hit. Kohli would rather work the ball for a single or two than going for a shot that may give his team a boundary but may also cost his wicket. Which brings us to another remarkable aspect of his game: ones and twos.

***

Me and him (Dhoni) have a great understanding as to where to hit the ball and how to push the fielders on the boundary, and that’s why you train in the gym. That’s why you do those fitness regimes, those sprints, and all the other tests that you go through. When I’m tired I should be able to run as fast as when I’m on zero, and I think that training paid off today.”
—Virat Kohli, after Sunday’s game

Kohli’s physiognomy has undergone a remarkable transformation since his early days. In his older pictures, the under-19 ones, you would see a teenager with a roundish face with a bit of baby fat. While he was never a Romesh Powar, far from it, he retained some of this surplus flab in his early days in the senior India team. After a quiet IPL season, he took a hard look at himself in the mirror and decided to change his lifestyle. Chubby cheeks disappeared in eight months and revealed a lighter, nimbler man who was more confident of himself, and it showed in his cricket.

For long, the Australians have been the epitome of cricket athleticism — at least for us Indians. Most Indian fan who grew up in the 90s recall Mark Waugh and Ricky Ponting’s acrobatic catching, but many also remember Shane Lee’s throw from the deep that ran Sachin Tendulkar out at the MCG 2000 when the great man was taking a second run. It was almost a lesson: You don’t take on the Aussie arm. Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni took it on four times in one Hazlewood over.

It happened after India had fallen behind considerably on required run rate after a partnership between Kohli and Yuvraj Singh, who injured his ankle while trying to steal a run. The run rate climbed up to 12 with 59 runs required for the last five overs. It was time for some urgency, but not quite yet for going after each and every ball. Hazlewood began with a dot. Kohli pulled the next to deep mid-wicket and took off. Glenn Maxwell collected it just fine and quickly rid himself of it, but Kohli had managed to return to the batting crease with a dive. He took on Finch in the deep cover region next, smacked a four off the fourth ball, took on Finch again for a double before finishing the over with another two. The crowd in Mohali couldn’t believe it. Nor could Steven Smith. An over that ought to have produced not more than eight runs, leaked 12. Panic set in the Australian camp. Shane Watson bowled a quiet 17th over, but soon the moment came, Kohli had been lying in wait for.

***

I visualise a lot; that’s one of my strengths. I don’t know if that’s a spiritual side or not but I do talk to myself a lot. When I’m planning for my next innings, I visualise who’s going to bowl to me, what I am going to do against him.”
—Virat Kohli, in 2014

“I knew a hundred per cent that I had to target James Faulkner in the 18th over. I thought 3 overs and 39 runs, and one over has to be a big one at least close to 15 runs. We got bigger (19) than that.”
—Virat Kohli, after Sunday’s game

Smith summoned Faulkner, Australia death-overs specialist. Faulkner had taken a five-for here the other night on a much truer track. His back-of-the-hand slower balls would, in theory, be handy here. He went around the wicket. Kohli had not as much as visualised or anticipated as he had SEEN what the left-armer was up to. A slower one banged in at short-of-a-length spot, Kohli swatted it away past deep mid-wicket for four. Thereafter, he owned Faulkner’s mind. The yorker on the off-stump was cracked away past deep cover, and off the next ball, again a back-of-a-length one, he charged down and lofted it above long off with a straight bat and minimum fuss. 14 off the first three balls, and then Kohli and Dhoni ran two twos and a single.

India still needed 20 off the last two. Kohli sliced Nathan Coulter-Nile’s fuller-length ball to the cover boundary, and when the bowled changed the line, he flicked him past short fine leg for another. Having taken India close and minimised the risk, Kohli finally brought the inside-out loft over extra cover out of the bag. He targeted the same region again, but with a carpet-scorching drive to leave Dhoni with four to get from the last over. This was a superhuman effort. And it left those who saw it thinking the same about Kohli. How can he finish things so calmly, so frequently and in front of so many people? Tendulkar couldn’t. Dhoni did, yes, but he would take far more risk and leave it to the last over.

***

I cannot understand how despite playing in front of 50-60,000 fans in the ground I am not bothered at all. I can see everyone, I am out there in the open, but still I am not drifting, I am not getting carried away. That makes you think that, yes, you belong. You are meant to do this. You have the ability and the skill to actually perform in these conditions because you are able to focus on that one delivery despite so many obstacles.”
— Virat Kohli, in 2016

India can rest in the knowledge that Virat remains ever so hungry about self-improvement. It’s perhaps an extension of his obsession with cleanliness. He says his room is always spick-and-span. Everything is neatly folded and kept in the place where he wants it to be. He does all of it himself. Kohli brings the same single-minded pursuit of perfection to his cricket. The way he is performing, and the rate at which he is improving, it’s mind boggling — almost scary — to imagine where he will end up.

Let him have the last word:

I don’t want to be remembered just as someone who played for India. I want to set an example for the people who will play for India after us.”
Virat Kohli, in 2014.