The Undisputed King || Virat Kohli || Cricket Updates

Just two wins away from breaking Steve Waugh’s record of number of test wins and suddenly on January 15th,2022 Virat Kohli tweets in the evening that he is stepping down as the Indian Test Captain. His decision sent shockwaves across the cricket fraternity and the assumptions were being made that this decision is a result of the loss in the Freedom Series against South Africa. But those who have seen him over the years knew it was not a spurt decision but rather a completely planned one and we have seen this before.

Year- 2014, Indian tour of Australia, after the second test MS DHONI (then the captain in charge) comes out in the press conference and just says “I am done” and quits the test cricket leaving the tour in middle and the captaincy was given in the hands of young, inexperienced Virat Kohli. Irony here is Australia is the same country where Kohli had faced several charges and bashings due to his inappropriate gestures to the crowd (when the crowed sledged him) and their former cricketers didn’t believe that he should even continue to play the cricket. And now from no where he is being made the test captain. 

In that tour the world saw the rise of the Virat Kohli as the batsman as he smashed back-to-back hundreds in two consecutive innings in one test match and was even very close to win one. But as expected we lost that series in a poor manner as he was the only one to perform. India slipped to its lowest at number 7 in ICC test rankings. Some fall in the worst situations and some have the capability to completely change and overrule the situation. Kohli without a doubt believed in the latter one. And after that story of becoming the greatest test captain of India starts. 

His tactics, style and approach towards the game was completely a different one. Probably it was best as what India needed that time. From the start he has been a bowler’s captain. He likes to beat the opponent with pace, scare them off and take wickets. Result of that can be seen in today’s Indian world class pace attack , we have the bowlers like Bumrah, Shami, Siraj, Shardul, Ishant and many more like Umesh, Saini , Krishna as our bench strength. All of them are hungry to take wickets and have the capability to take 20 wickets under any conditions in any country and can expose any strong batting lineup on their day. This did not happen in one month or a year. This was a gradual process for which he laid the foundation in the 2015.

Earlier where our team was a victim of sledging in every one or the other tour today gives benefitting replies. Opponents are scared to sledge him. Australian captain was recorded in the stump mic saying “don’t sledge them he(Virat) is yet to come”. You sledge him in one match or an innings, he will make your whole series difficult. Those banters that he had with Joe Root( England Captain), Tim Paine(Australian Captain) are worth seeing that how sledging even improves his game and he had himself said if someone outrages him it brings the best out of him. His aggression, celebrating the fall of wicket like he himself had took one, his on the field fight for his teammates, his backing for the players will definitely be remembered for long.

The winning culture that he ushered in the team. Ishant Sharma recalls the practice session where Virat said to him “ bohot ho gya yaar we have to win in the SENA countries” and he did so. For the first time in history India won the test series in the Australian soil. And who can forget the famous win at LORD’S in 2021 where we are still leading the series by 2-1. From 2016 to 2022 we have been reigning at no.1 in the ICC test rankings. The man who built his own army, taught Indian team how to crush the opponent has finally stepped down. 

Probably it was not the prefect time to step down from the captaincy but the circumstances under which he was, his so-called disputes with BCCI, the decision as Sunil Gavaskar said that day was a no surprise and he knew it was coming. It is indeed very unfortunate that BCCI did not back him in the last few months in terms of captaincy. We cant comment completely on that one but everyone knows Kohli doesn’t like to be controlled by anyone and ever since selectors, coach have been changed things are getting puzzled up and there is a lot of turmoil in the Indian cricket. One reporter rightfully said on India Today that “MS was the most backed captain of BCCI not because he was a loved one but because he knew how to handle BCCI and team at the same team which Virat sadly lacked”.

 In the coming months we will definitely witness impact of this decision on Indian Cricket. I personally learned a lot from him which I intend to apply in life as well. And at the last I can proudly say- we may have not seen SIR VIVIAN RICHARDS era but we were lucky to witness the VIRAT KOHLI era……..