Big-match player Virat Kohli hits top gear with ‘clarity’

As Shikhar Dhawan stressed, wide eyed and emphatically, to a gaggle of us journalists having an impromptu chat with him inside the Dubai International Cricket Stadium’s media enclosure, about the danger of writing off Virat Kohli, behind us on the cricket pitch, Kohli was nearing another ODI half-century. When he duly got there in 62 deliveries, with his fourth four of the evening, the sea of fans in Team India jerseys almost rose as one to appreciate the man’s landmark, and the words of Dhawan rang loud in one’s ears. Louder, in fact, than the noise emanating from the stands. 

“Do not make the mistake of writing off Virat Kohli, or Rohit Sharma,” Dhawan had said in response to a question about the star Indian batting pair’s struggles at the ages of 38 and 36, respectively. “There’s a lot of cricket left in both of them. Bad times are a part of cricket, and they’ve had a bad phase, but look at their achievements and you know it was only a matter of time before they bounced back. Don’t think they are finished.”

Indeed, Kohli’s 51st hundred in the one-day format underlined emphatically what Dhawan, who played 141 of his 167 career ODIs with the former India captain, was talking out. There’s plenty of gas left in the tank, as far as Kohli the ODI cricketer is concerned. He’s struggled in his past few Test series and might not last much past this summer’s five-Test series in England if he continues to nick off outside the off stump, but in the ODI game Kohli could foreseeably play until the 2027 World Cup. That is, if he has the hunger to. 

Kohli once averaged in the mid-50s in Test cricket, and from 2015 to 2020 there was no more consistent a batsman in the five-day game. But it is in the ODI format, even factoring in a run of three-odd years without a century, that Kohli is truly the boss. 

But coming into yesterday’s game with Pakistan, it did seem that Kohli’s struggles in red-ball cricket had seeped into his ODI batting. Scores of 24, 14 and 20 in three matches in Sri Lanka last year painted an impression of a man struggling against spin, but those were turning tracks. When India resumed playing ODI cricket against England recently, Kohli made 5 and 52, and then opened India’s Champions Trophy in Dubai with 22 off 38 deliveries against Bangladesh. Far from ideal batting returns given Kohli’s status in ODI cricket, and clearly weaknesses against legspin, which left you wondering how he would fare against Pakistan’s Abrar Ahmed.

On the day, Kohli played out the bespectacled legspinner cautiously yet confidently. Abrar bowled the ball of the match to bowl a well-embedded Shubman Gill on 46, and tied down the new man in, Shreyas Iyer, on his way to figures of 1/28 from his 10 overs. Immediately after Abrar’s spell ended, Kohli walked up to him and patted him on the back. Later, during the post-match press conference, Iyer singled out Abrar for how well he bowled. 

The point here is that Kohli, in the cauldron of an India-Pakistan game, overcame a weakness by not throwing away his wicket to a legspinner as he done in three consecutive ODIs, to England’s Adil Rashid twice and Bangladesh’s Rishad Hossain here in Dubai a few days ago. That is what separates truly great ODI batsmen, and Kohli, with his 51st century last night, reminded the cricket watching audience around the world. 

It was a very fine innings, risk-free and authoritative. Kohli’s game awareness and sense of occasion was on full view against Pakistan, as he took a big stride forward to the spinners, sat back to dab the pacers down to third man for singles, and in between, for the fans, unfurled some gorgeous drives. 

After the game, during which he became the fastest to 14,000 runs in ODIs by beating Sachin Tendulkar’s mark, Kohli spoke about his approach to building a winning innings. “I was happy with the template; it’s how I play in ODIs. I have decent understanding of my game. It’s about keeping the outside noise away, taking care of my energy levels and thoughts. It’s easy for me to get pulled into expectations and the frenzy around games like these. Clarity is important, when there is pace on the ball you have to get scoring,” he said. 

That clarity which Kohli referenced is the differentiator for top-class cricketers at the age of 36, which is how old Kohli is. There’s an ICC Champions Trophy to be won – India’s last major ODI tournament title was the same one back in 2013 – and of Kohli can maintain that clarity for three more matches, this team could well have the trophy in their hands.

Thereafter, regarding the road to the 2027 World Cup in South Africa … well, that too will come down to clarity.