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Just a short while back, Virat Kohli's bravado used to elicit cringe. His arrogance and egotism were met with distaste from fans. His game was no doubt great, but the maturity was under question. Test captaincy brought a sea change in his approach, but the temperament to sustain his efforts, and clinch crucial moments, was still under question.
He turned it all around in 2016, a year in which he looked in breathtaking command of his game, in a one-sided battle against the bowlers that bordered on invincibility.
Although there are quite a handful of innings to choose from, and each big knock was worth its weight in gold, here are the top five innings from “Kohli’s 2016”.
#5 90* vs Australia, Adelaide
Kohli’s highest score in T20Is, and the commencement of his red hot form in T20s this year, started off with this unbeaten knock in Australia. Coming in with the team on 40-1 inside the first five overs, Kohli saw Shikhar Dhawan walk back just as he entered, but decided to bring some calm by playing his natural strokes.
He quickly developed a special liking for the leg-spinner, Cameron Boyce, who was taken to the cleaners with Kohli’s inside-out drives over covers. He compulsively stepped out against the spinners, including debutant Travis Head, who was carted to boundaries over his head. Against Shane Watson, he had a measured approach, placing the ball in gaps and running hard. Before you knew, he had gone past his fifty.
He didn’t let go of his favoured areas, as the covers boundary was scorched multiple times. Shaun Tait, on a comeback bid, was flicked off the pad for sixes. From the other end, Suresh Raina played the ideal second-fiddle, ensuring that Kohli had company during his assured knock. Eventually, the target of 189 proved to be too much for the hosts, and they fell short by 37 runs.
#4 154* vs New Zealand, Mohali
The most striking feature of Kohli’s batting in 2016 was his ability to switch formats without tinkering too much with his batting style. Since Kohli employs traditional cricketing strokes even in the shorter formats, he doesn’t require a massive upheaval when shifting from Tests to ODIs, as was evident when he played a masterful knock against the Kiwis in the ODI series, just after the Tests.
He got a reprieve early in his innings when Ross Taylor dropped a sitter in the slips, making it count big time. Dhoni promoted himself after Rohit Sharma’s departure, but took the backseat as Kohli was timing the ball sweetly, evident by one of his lofted flicked shots to the boundary to deep midwicket: Kohli himself was bemused by the purity of the shot.
He picked Tim Southee out like a spinner, consistently whipping him to the leg-side boundary off his pads. Dhoni departed when Kohli was nearing his 100. India still needed 73 in the last 10 overs, and a brittle middle order was what was left. He went past Kumar Sangakkara’s tally of career ODI hundreds, but knew that the job was only half done.Post his 100, he pierced the off side will multiple incisions, shoving Boult and Southee in his back pocket.
His knock was best described by the straight drive six off Trent Boult, one of the best pacers in the world. A cricket ball has rarely been hit more cleanly off the full face of the bat.
#3 235 vs England, Mumbai
Kohli had a slow start to this innings against England at the Wankhede: he took nine balls to get off the mark. Early in his stay, the English bowlers applied a simple strategy: bowling in the area outside off stump, trying to extract an edge, which is the only perceptible flaw in Kohli’s technique.
But the conditions weren’t such that could trouble him. He ensured that he was playing all deliveries outside the off stump with soft hands, guiding it between slip and gully.Against the spinners, he used the crease, going back and forth to pull the ball in the gap between midwicket and square leg.
With wickets falling in front of him, Kohli started playing more openly. He later conceded that the plan was closing in on the lead and getting as close to England’s first innings total as possible. With a solid looking Jayant Yadav for company, Kohli got the chance to build on the hundred. Even at the fag end of the day, his straight drives and square cuts were just as effective.
The result was his third double hundred in Tests, and his third in three consecutive series.
Sit back and watch Kohli’s career-best Test score here.
#2 113 vs KXIP, Bengaluru
Neither a fifteen over a side contest, nor an injured hand, could stop Virat Kohli from conjuring a fourth hundred in the IPL, in the fiftieth match of this edition against the Kings XI Punjab. Opening the innings in a truncated match, Kohli and Gayle went berserk, carting the bowlers all over the park without even a semblance of relent.
For Gayle, even mishits were sailing over the ropes, while Kohli was picking and choosing his gaps, although the latter maintained his penchant for scoring on the off-side with delightfully crafted lofted cover drives.
While Gayle lost steam and departed after 73, Kohli continued his belligerent innings, taking the team’s total to an unsurpassable score. The spinners KC Cariappa and Axar Patel were smothered to bits by the duo, while the South African pacer Kyle Abbott was brushed aside.
He ended up on 113 from 50 balls, engineering the Bangalore franchise to an astounding score of 211 in just 90 balls.
Kohli has split the webbing of his left hand while fielding in the previous match against the Gujarat Lions, requiring multiple stitches and a heavy roll of bandage to protect the hand. He played through the discomfort and pain, the celebration showing how much the knock mattered to him.
#1 82* off 51, vs Australia, Mohali
The knock that truly typified Virat Kohli’s unmatchable form in 2016 was his faultless innings against Australia in the quarter-finals of the World T20 earlier this year.
Batting first, India got off to a flyer, but Shikhar Dhawan, in a rush of blood, went for one shot too many, skying the ball to short fine leg. The big occasion brought in Kohli, but before he could settle, Rohit Sharma was cleaned up by veteran Shane Watson, leaving them reeling on 37-2. Suresh Raina fuelled the fire further by falling, yet again, to a short ball. With Yuvraj Singh by his side, Kohli decided to take matters into his own hands.
Yuvraj Singh was slowly finding his elements, but fell after 21, still leaving them with 70 runs to get. Kohli worked his way to a fifty off 38 balls, but knew time was running out quickly.That’s when he unlocked a different dimension to his batting. He owned James Faulkner with some breathtaking strokes, none more spectacular than his lofted drive to the left-armer. When the winning runs were hit, Kohli fell to the ground, exhausted and at the end of his tether, but having realised he had uncorked a special.
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