Virat Kohli: Touched by genius

Indian batsman Virat Kohli celebrates after hitting the winning runs

“Genius on his bat. Genius with the bat.”

Nasser Hussain perfectly summed up what all of India has felt towards Virat Kohli. Kohli has been an absolute star for India, ever since his U19 days, and he is just continuing with this amazing vein of form that he finds himself in.

Kohli just loves to find himself in pressure situations and it is an absolute joy to watch him wade his team out of troubled waters into commanding positions. It is that desire to want to put oneself in pressure situations that has made Kohli a master of the run chase. Be it ODIs or T20s, Kohli times the chase to absolute perfection.

He scores at humongous strike rates, but it is not always the big hits to the fence that make him stand out. It’s the ones and twos that do. Against South Africa, in a high pressure, high intensity semifinal, Kohli played 3 dot balls out of 44.

All too often in T20 cricket, dot balls build pressure. And that pressure leads to a rush of blood, a rash shot more often than not. So what do you do if you are Virat Kohli? You don’t play out any dot balls. For Kohli, in this form, a good ball goes for one or two, and the bad ball for a boundary.

It is skill that stands out. Skill of the very highest quality. And the ability to execute that skill in the most demanding of situations. The ability to charge the best fast bowler of this generation and carve him over point with nonchalance.

For the lesser mortals, pressure eats away at your skill. It blunts it. For Virat Kohli, pressure just magnifies his skill. Virat Kohli has shown, dare I say it, greater ability under pressure than Sachin Tendulkar did. All too often, Sachin used to throw it away under pressure. In a big chase, or a big game. For Kohli, the chase has already been worked out in his head. The algorithms and the flowcharts are there. The implementation, he carries out under his whims and fancies.

Pressure gives Virat Kohli a weird sense of calm. It takes him into a zone where he cannot be reached. A zone where he and only he knows what he is doing.

12 of his 19 ODI centuries have come in winning run chases. In this World T20, he has scores of 36*, 54, 57* and 72* while chasing. Why? Why is it always him? The answer according to the man himself is simple: “Cricket matches are won as much between your ears, as they are on technique. If you can mentally be strong then you can tell yourself to stay on the wicket.”

So, when he walked out yesterday and didn’t hit a boundary for 16 balls, there was no panic whatsoever. He knew that his presence in the middle was vital. As soon as he saw the part time spin of JP Duminy being introduced, he was at it, lashing him over mid on for six. But, even those first 16 balls, he was scoring at more than run-a-ball without really taking an risks.

He says: “Everyone wants to do well, and I am no different”

Well, Virat, you are different. Everyone wants to do well, you are able to do well.