2008 to 2018: Reliving The Riveting Journey Of Virat Kohli

The year was 2008. A young man, all of 19 years old, was making his debut for India. He had just led the U-19 side to victory at Kuala Lumpur, and was now ready for the big stage.

Virat Kohli came out to bat for India for the first time on 18th August 2008, against Sri Lanka at Dambulla. That was the time when the Indian team was filled with superstars. Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar were still the mainstays at the top of the order, Yuvraj Singh had just had a blistering World T20 in 2007, and a leader called Mahendra Singh Dhoni was unearthed just a year before.

The young man did not set the stage ablaze upon his arrival. In fact, in the first one and half years of his career, Kohli scored only 484 runs, and many felt that Kohli was a man who was more interested in tattoos and hairstyles than scoring runs. But, the Indian team management persisted with him, as they thought that it was only a matter of time before his talent converted itself into performance with the bat.

He soon responded by scoring a magnificent 107 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata against Sri Lanka. Three more centuries in the year 2010 ensured Kohli a berth in the Indian squad for the all-important 2011 World Cup to be played on home soil.

Kohli played three crucial knocks for India in the World Cup: his maiden World Cup hundred in the first match against Bangladesh, a crucial 59 against the West Indies and a 35 in the World Cup Final, stitching an 83 run partnership with Gautam Gambhir.

But Kohli’s performances with the bat were overshadowed by Tendulkar’s mastery with the willow, Yuvraj’s imperious performances right through the tournament, and of course the magnificent 91*by Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the final.

The first stand out performance in Kohli’s career came in the year 2012, against Sri Lanka- a knock which gave the world the first glimpse of an extraordinary batting talent. The setting for this match was the Hobart cricket ground. The Sri Lankans had scored a mammoth 320/4 in their allotted 50 overs, and India had to chase the target inside 40 overs to stay alive in the tournament.

Kohli walked out to the middle with the score at 86/2 after the departure of Tendulkar. It was on this day, that Kohli showed that he was the master of the chase. He hit 16 fours and 2 sixes in an ethereal knock of 133 off only 86 balls.

Kulasekara was driven with finesse, Mathews and Maharoof were cut, flicked and pulled to the boundary. But the best treatment of the day was reserved for the Sri Lankan pace spearhead Lasith Malinga. Kohli literally ripped apart the Sri Lankan speedster, carting him to all corners of the cricket ground.

The Sri Lankans stood dazed as the classic unravelled in front of their eyes. In the end, not only had India overhauled the Sri Lankan target of 321, but had done so in just 36.4 overs to stay alive in the tournament.

The second Kohli special came in the Asia Cup in March 2012 against arch-rivals Pakistan. Chasing a huge target of 330 for a win, Kohli walked in with the score at 0/1 to join his idol Tendulkar in the middle.

The two put on a magnificent 133 run partnership for the second wicket, with the disciple matching the master stroke for stroke. After Tendulkar fell for 52, Kohli took over and scored an imperious 183 off just 148 balls comprising 22 fours and a six to steer India to victory.

Kohli scored 1026 runs from the 17 matches that he played at an average of 68.40 in 2012. If 2012 saw the birth of a superstar, 2013 further confirmed that he was here to stay. In the 34 matches that Kohli played in 2013, he scored a colossal 1268 runs including 4 hundreds and 7 fifties.

The year 2013 also saw the retirement of India’s greatest cricketer ever. Sachin Tendulkar walked into the sunset after 24 illustrious years at the top. The little master bowed out in front of his adoring fans, and an era had ended in Indian cricket.

In the first Test India played after Tendulkar’s departure, Kohli, coming in at No.4, scored a magnificent hundred against South Africa at the Wanderers. It was Kohli’s way of signalling that he was carrying forward the legacy of the great Tendulkar.

2014 too, started on a positive note for Kohli. In the first ODI of the year, the master batsman smashed an incredible 123 off only 111 balls at an astounding strike rate of 110.81.

However, the huge reality check for Kohli came when India toured England for a 5 Test series in July-August 2014. In the 10 innings that he played, Kohli scored a meagre 134 runs at a poor average of just 13.4.

Kohli’s tendency to go hard at the ball and his tendency to play away from the body was exploited by the likes of Broad and Anderson. It would have been extremely difficult and disappointing for Kohli.

But, great players have the ability to come back.

And what a comeback it was! In the gruelling four Test series against Australia that followed the England tour, Kohli scored a staggering 692 runs which included 4 hundreds against the fiery Mitchell Johnson and the deceptive Nathan Lyon.

This was also the series when MS Dhoni shocked the cricketing world by announcing his retirement from Test cricket midway through the series, and the mantle of leading the side fell on the young shoulders of Kohli.

By the end of 2014, Kohli had firmly established himself as one of the best batsmen in the game and was considered as the backbone of the Indian batting line up for the crucial 2015 World Cup to be played in Australia.

Kohli started the 2015 World Cup with a bang by becoming the first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in the World Cup. His 107 paved the way for an Indian victory against the arch-rivals. He continued to be in decent form scoring 46 against South Africa and a 33 against the West Indies.

India sailed through the group stage, beat Bangladesh in the quarterfinals, and set up a high octane cash against Australia in the semi-finals. The Aussies scored a mammoth 328/7, and a lot depended upon Kohli if India were to have any chance of overhauling the Australian total. But Mitchell Johnson’s pace and bounce did the trick as Kohli departed for just 1 off 13 balls. A fighting 65 by MS Dhoni was not enough as India crashed out of the tournament.

Irritated Indian fans blamed Kohli for the loss, and some even went to the extent of saying that it was because of the presence of Kohli’s then girlfriend Anushka Sharma that made Kohli flop in the semi-final.

All in all, 2015 was not a good one for Virat. Although he scored two hundreds, he did not exactly set the stage ablaze as he had done in the previous 3 years.

In 2016 and 2017, Kohli was the monarch of all that he surveyed. While he continued his dream run with the bat to stamp his authority as the greatest ODI player of his generation by smashing 9 hundreds, 11 fifties and scoring over 2000 runs in those 2 years, he also owned the Test arena with some riveting performances.

In the 34 innings that he played in 2016 and 2017 in Test cricket, he scored a mind-boggling 2274 runs which included a staggering 9 hundreds. And what more, he converted 6 of those into double hundreds and plundered runs against West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Bangladesh.

By the end of 2017, Kohli had become the best batsman in modern day cricket without a shadow of a doubt.

In 2018, India yet again embarked on a tour to England comprising of 5 Tests. England was the only place Kohli was yet to establish his supremacy. It was in a way, his ‘Final Frontier’. If anyone had doubts over how Kohli would fare this time around, then all those doubts were put to rest as Kohli scored a magnificent 149 in the first Test at Edgbaston. What was amazing to watch was, Kohli was willing to play himself in, get a feel of the conditions, and was both physically and mentally ready for anything the English pacers threw at him.

The battle between Anderson and Kohli was one for the connoisseurs of Test cricket. Even as Anderson kept probing Kohli outside the off stump, Kohli did not budge. The master batsman did not commit himself too much into his shots, as he had done on earlier occasions, and though Anderson beat his bat many times, Kohli was simply not willing to give in.

At the end of the series, Kohli had plundered 593 runs from 5 Tests including 2 glorious hundreds. And with that, the final frontier was conquered, and Kohli now, could legitimately stake claim to be in the pantheon of greats in Test Match cricket too.

Then, when the West Indies toured India, the batting dynamite scored 3 consecutive hundreds in the ODI series, and in the process, also became the fastest to 10000 runs in ODI cricket, getting there in just 205 innings (an incredible 54 innings lesser than the second placed Tendulkar)

Kohli is now just 30 years old. He still has a lot of bowling attacks to tame, a lot of battles to be won, a lot of records to be rewritten, and most importantly, a lot more matches to be won for India.

While he embarks on the second decade in his glittering career, let us celebrate the incredible transformation of Kohli- from just 'another talented middle-order batsman', to a batting powerhouse, and now, the undisputed youth icon for millions of people.

Ah! What a journey it has been…..