Weekly Sports Newsletter: Why Kohli and Rohit are like partners in a three-legged race

In the unending drama that is Indian cricket, this week the plot thickened. Within days of the new coach taking over this team in transition came the succession twist. The timing was almost theatrical. It was the classic slow scaling up of the melodrama, penned by a skilled daily-soap scriptwriter. It was a potboiler on high flame. Here’s a link to the inside story of this compelling new episode.

The intertwined cast of characters has made this wheel-within-wheels saga a voyeur’s delight.

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First there is Virat Kohil, the iconic skipper with a slightly fading aura. In second lead is Rohit Sharma, his promising successor with proven leadership credentials. Among the decision-makers is a legend of the game. Sourav Ganguly, a charismatic captain of his time, got what he wanted in his playing days. That’s history. As the BCCI president he isn’t that powerful. It is an open secret that no file moves in BCCI without the nod from the Indian board’s real decision-maker – secretary Jay Shah, son of Home Minister Amit Shah.

There are more layers of complexity.

The new coach of the team soon to witness a generational shift – read Shamik Chakrabarty’s report about old hands Ishant Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara on borrowed time for the upcoming South Africa tour – is ex-skipper Rahul Dravid. He too has a past and a backstory that features an angsty young Ganguly.

It was during Dravid’s reign as captain that Ganguly was unceremoniously shown the door. He didn’t just lose captaincy; Ganguly even lost his place in the side. Years later, in the book ‘A century is not enough’, Ganguly would write: “Rahul came back from the selection meeting. He took me aside in the dressing room and said, ‘Sourav, sorry you are out of the squad.’ I was aghast.” About his unexpected dumping he would add: “To say it was a travesty of justice would be an understatement.”

However, the bitterness between the two didn’t last. Ganguly would make a famous comeback. On his return with most slots filled, the team management, read Dravid and Greg Chappell, would give Ganguly the opener’s slot in Tests. On match eve, Dravid would have second thoughts, he would intervene. Back to the book. “Dravid was a purist. Especially in Test cricket. He would always approach a game in the most classical way. He and Greg told me that, since I was staging a comeback, sending me up front would send a wrong signal. People might think I was being sacrificed unfairly.”

Dravid, in the book, would come out shining. The real villain of the piece, according to Ganguly, was Chappell. Dravid was his old mate, the one who called him the ‘God of off-side”, the calming influence at the non-striker end when he got a hundred on his Test debut at Lord’s.

So it came as no surprise that when India needed Ravi Shastri’s replacement as coach, Ganguly, now the president, reached out for Dravid. There were those who said that Anil Kumble’s ugly departure would see his long-time friend and Karnataka team mate turn down the head coach offer. But with Ganguly at the helm and watching his back, Dravid would sign up. They have had their differences. It didn’t matter. They go back a long way and have life-long mutual respect. Just like Kohli and Rohit.

Back in the day, when the two present skippers were still struggling to cement their place in the Indian team, I had met Rohit on a wintery Delhi evening. The domestic game he was part of was long over. After his cooling down routine, the next big Mumbai batsman of that time would walk out of the dressing room for the promised interview. It was getting dark. At a distance, Kohli waited for the interaction to get over. The two had plans for the evening. After the longish interview, by which time a restless Kohli had started his descent from the stadium, I had asked Rohit how the two young players, fighting for the same slot in the Indian middle-order, could be friends. With that half smile and wave to his waiting mate, Rohit had praised Kohli the batsman. He said that in sports things were simple. The one who played better would get the break. And with his trademark shrug and in a tone betraying his conviction, Rohit had made a memorable parting remark. “Such things have never impacted my friendships,” he had said.

Even a couple of years back, Kohli, in a delightful interview with host Gaurav Kapur on the ‘Breakfast with Champions’ show had painted an endearing picture of his charmingly absent-minded and outrageously funny mate. He was honest about the pangs of jealousy he had to deal with when they were both budding cricketers with big dreams and the world would praise Rohit to the skies. “I was curious because everyone was talking about this player called Rohit Sharma. I was very curious because I was also a young player, but nobody was talking about me. Then during the T20 World Cup (2007) I saw him bat, I just slumped in the sofa. That shut my mouth forever.” Check the youtube, that ‘forever’ has conviction, the same that was evident in Rohit’s tone on that wintery Delhi evening.

Of course with time as stakes go high and the voices that influence you change, equations and relationships don’t remain the same. But both have been around long enough to know that their legacy as captains depends on each other, like two partners running a three-legged race. Kohli’s Test success will depend on Rohit the opener doing well. And conversely, if Rohit wants to hold aloft a limited overs ICC Trophy, he would pray for the success of his team’s best batsman. Plus there’s always Dravid around to remind them that those playing a team sport forgive, forget and move on.

Do send feedback to sandeep.dwivedi@indianexpress.com

Sandeep Dwivedi

National Sports Editor

The Indian Express