4 min readJan 19, 2026 08:08 AM IST
First published on: Jan 18, 2026 at 10:23 PM IST
It was back to the 1990s, the era when Sachin Tendulkar would wage a solitary battle, score a hundred that would fail to paper over the fissures in India’s brittle batting. Virat Kohli’s 124 didn’t take India past New Zealand’s total of 337. It wasn’t that he had failed, it was his mates who failed him. On a flat track, on which Kohli batted like a dream, the other four in the top five worryingly couldn’t take advantage.
Had cricket been an individual sport, Kohli might have taken India home. But with wickets falling at the other end, he couldn’t trust the tail-enders and his ‘all or nothing’ slog resulted in him getting out. India lost the game and the series and with it came a lesson and possibly a change in the collective mindset of the team management and the selectors.
The inconsistency of India’s ODI batting group and the sickening pattern of their dismissals ensure that the narrative will now change. Now, it is no longer about Kohli desperately chasing the 2027 World Cup; now it’s almost India pleading for him to linger on until next year. How times change in sport.
Mid-2025
Shubman Gill
700+ Runs
vs England series, heir apparent, Test captain, watertight defence
Mid-2025
Virat Kohli
Phase-Out Expected
Retired from Tests & T20Is, limited ODI games, questioned intensity
Early 2026
Shubman Gill
Technical Flaw
Gap between bat & pad exposed by Jamieson, Rabada, Anderson
Early 2026
Virat Kohli
124 vs NZ
Conquered away-going ball weakness, indispensable for 2027 WC
The Irony
New sheriff shows old weakness while veteran conquers old demons
Indian Express InfoGenIE
About six months back, during the England series, Indian cricket seemed to have moved on. After a 700-plus run-spree, Shubman Gill was Kohli’s heir apparent. He was solidity personified, the all-format player who also made marketeers weak in the knees. He was the Test captain but it was believed he would take charge in the ODIs too.
It was only a matter of time before Rohit Sharma and Kohli – both retired from Tests and T20Is – would be phased out. This was mid-2025, 2027 was too far away. Away from the international circuit and with limited ODI games, no one thought the Big Two would have the drive or the necessary intense training needed to survive the intensity of top cricket.
It was logical thinking, not wishful thinking of those not too keen to have the seniors around the young team with a coach who was against star culture.
India got the first surprise in the away ODI series against Australia, where a lean and slim Rohit turned back the clock to show that he was in no mood to hang his boots. In the subsequent home series against South Africa, Kohli would roar to the world that his story wasn’t over. And now in the final ODI of the season, before T20 madness takes over, he made another empathetic statement – ‘I am back and you need me’.
As ironies go, this one was stark; it hung prominently in the Indore air. Gill, the new sheriff, was showing his old weakness. Tall Kiwi bowler Kyle Jamieson, like Kagiso Rabada and James Anderson, had again exposed the Indian captain’s flaw in leaving a big gap between bat and pad. As he lost his stumps, Gill looked a shadow of the batsman who had blunted the England attack – negotiating the incoming delivery with his watertight defence.
As for Kohli, he seemed to have figured out a way to deal with the away-going ball – his old Achilles heel. Life has come full circle for Gill and Kohli in a matter of months.
Virat Kohli of India during the 3rd ODI match between India and New Zealand at Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore, India, on January 18, 2026.
(CREIMAS for BCCI) 
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