Virat Kohli: To the evangelist of Cricket, from an ardent fan

This is my third attempt at writing this article, and before you blame my procrastination, do understand that this article is trying to subsume within its well-defined limits, a man, who seems to defy any/every limit that seems to embargo the champion in him.

With every knock that this man plays you raise the level where you keep him at and quietly tell yourself that this will be untrammeled for a while. Only to meet the same man, in another knock, where he seems to bat like he has been batting for over an hour, while all that he has actually faced is a couple balls which were quietly defended.

Nothing improper there, by the time he has played 20 balls in a T20 match, you’re expecting a half century in another 10 balls. The same Indian mindset that makes you expect a half century also tells you, this is a ‘decent knock’ with a strike rate a shade under 150, and that happens because ‘decent’ is pretty respectfully comfortable territory for us.

And, this is where Kohli starts defying limits. Before you can daub your paintbrush well enough to stroke ‘decent’ on the canvas of your mind, this man has already raced to 75+ in another over and a half. That is surely not ‘decent’, not at least for the bowlers who are bowling to him.

As an opposing captain, you employ strategic fields, ask your bowler to bowl to the fields and bowl full; a beautiful lined yorker, and before the bowler can look up after that back-bending stuff, Virat has already drilled it between gully and backward point for a boundary.

Genius- you’d say, but if you’ve ever had a chance to face a yorker at any level (including the park games all of us have been a part of) a voice from somewhere would probably say- practice.

And that is where Virat Kohli creates a gulf between his decent fifties and outlandish centuries. While Rohit Sharma struggles with balls just outside the off-stump initially and Raina dreads the short balls, Kohli braves them, standing tall and punching the short stuff, driving the ones outside the off stump, and respecting the ones which deserve respect.

Indian cricket has for a long time sought assurance. We, as Indians love assurance, be it from online retailers, or college professors, it always helps to know for sure the test dates in advance, doesn’t it? Virat Kohli has emerged to stand up and provide that assurance.

It’s quite inexplicable, but it is almost like, when he stands in the middle, he suddenly assumes control, and whispers to each one of us, ‘I got this’ . Sure he doesn’t get it home for us every time but he assures us, everytime, without fail.

Everytime he runs, you’re assured he will take 2 with ease, everytime he drives, you’re assured he will pierce the gap, everytime he plays a lofted shot, you’re assured he will clear the obstacles. Sure he fails, but he improves, and that is what allows you to be sure the next time he comes out to bat. As Indians, we have longed for that feeling.

So, when he scored a century off 47 balls against the KXIP recently in a rain-curtailed 15 over game at Bengaluru, all of us somewhere knew that it was coming. Once he crossed the ‘decent fifty’ mark off 29 balls, he made sure that he scored the next 50 off just 18 balls. It’s almost like two different batsmen batted for the two halves of one of the most belligerent yet classy T20 innings one will ever witness.

Then, he took his helmet off, put his bat on the ground, pointed to his left hand which had 9 stitches…and the realisation dawned, ‘oh lord! he played with an injured hand’. He figuratively kept hammering his right thumb on his left (injured hand) as if to show that he was hammering down his pain, gee, how can you not experience goosebumps!

Sometimes you feel, maybe too much is being expected of Virat Kohli, who at the end of it all is a cricketer who plays a sport which is all about form and momentum. Only to shun all those thoughts everytime he swivels his wrists to send the ball sailing over the mid-wicket boundary. To give us that sense of assurance again, and we expect again, and he delivers.

Sure there will be a time when he won’t be able to deliver, and to stand by his side and give him assurance will perhaps be the biggest test that the lovers of this sport will face. We’ve quite often failed this test, let’s hope we don’t with a man who is an excellent evangelist of the sport all of us love.