NOT FOR NOTHING HAS IT BEEN SAID THAT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE “ORDINARY” AND “EXTRAORDINARY” IS THAT “EXTRA”. AND KOHLI SEEMS TO HAVE THAT
Daringly tough and fiercely talented, Virat Kohli is not just a role model for budding cricketers around the world, but has the deftness to be a game changer for Team India in the ICC World Cup 2019 to be held in Englnd, with his ability to give it back when it comes to settling scores on the field. A spunky, chubby teenager with gelled hair shot to fame after leading India to glory in the Under-19 World Cup at Kuala Lumpur in early 2008. In an Indian team Virat Kohli, with his most un-Indian, 'bad-boy' intensity, would clearly be an outcast. Right from Day one of his first-class career, Kohli has made little secret of his intent to play cricket with aggression. His outbursts, first against Australia after scoring his maiden century in Perth, to the recent Sri Lanka Test series, have hit headlines and even earned praise from senior cricketers for trail-blazing a path for future cricketers.
We remember the accolades, but where did it all begin? There's always the one innings that made the world sit up and take notice; the 86-ball knock which he started off as a brash boy, but ended as a man. Chasing an improbable target of 321 off 40 overs to stay alive in the tournament, he laid into the Sri Lankan bowlers and carted his way to 133*, getting India home with more than 2 overs to spare, practically pulling them out of the airport after M.S. Dhoni rather ignorantly remarked that India had already been eliminated from the tournament. King Kohli had arrived. The king of the run-chase, and a plethora of ODI records in the modern age.
If his striking batting skills, teamed with self-assurance and aggression, attract today’s on-the-move generation, then it’s only a matter of time before he acquires the status of pacesetter in the world of cricket. He’s been hogging news for not just his on-field activities but also for all the off-field adventures, which have created an image of an angry young man of the new-age cricket generation. Kohli scored his 39th ODI century in the second match against Australia in Adelaide. His masterful 104, coupled with MS Dhoni's unbeaten 55, helped India chase down a target of 299 with four balls to spare. The visitors eventually won the three-match series 2-1 – the same scoreline with which they clinched the historic four-Test series that preceded it. While Kohli's 10,000 runs before turning 30 make a phenomenal achievement, he is still some way behind his idol and India great Sachin Tendulkar's all-time highest tally of 18,426 runs. The protégé has time to get there and given the way he has been scoring runs, it is possible that he will get there. It's a tough one, though.
Tendulkar was the first to get there, then Virender Sehwag. Martin Guptill and Chris Gayle have got there too, and Sharma now has three. But Kohli, for all his conversion prowess, hasn't quite made it to the doublecentury mark, perhaps because the men mentioned are/were all openers and he is not. Kohli's highest is the 183 he made against Pakistan in 2012. He has four scores above 150; his challenge now is to go on and get a double.
Early days
Kohli was not so expressive in his early days, however. It was December 2006, early in his first-class career, when he had to come and bat in the morning for Delhi in a Ranji Trophy tie against Karnataka, and he got a call at 3 am, informing him of his father Prem Kohli’s demise. Being an overnight batsman at the crease, he was in two minds — whether to play or not. After lying awake the entire night, he walked to the pitch with absolutely no emotion on his face. His innings of 90, was the most crucial for his team to save a follow-on.
He went straight to his dad’s funeral after that innings, and didn’t take part in the rest of the match. That particular innings under trying circumstances was enough to judge this 18-year-old’s mettle and mental strength.
Talk to his mother, and she will tell you how Kohli “changed” after that day: “Overnight, he became a much more matured person. He took every match seriously. He hated being on the bench. It’s as if his life hinged totally on cricket after that day. Now, he looks like he is chasing his father’s dream, which is his own too.”
A voracious reader, Kohli read a lot during his early days but hardly gets time for his pet pastime now. He also invests in autobiographies of famous sportspersons. His favourite reads are Andre Agassi’s autobiography Open and that of Formula One racing legend Ayrton Senna, The life of Senna.
His reading enhanced his command over the language and his interaction with people around the world. As in words, what people don’t see is the absolute precision of his mind while choosing every shot and movement on the field.
“Deep down inside I was determined to become a successful international cricketer. I watched my idols win matches for India and I would imagine myself in the Indian jersey hitting the winning runs, Kohli says, adding how he would imagine himself there and think what he would do in that situation. “It’s all coming true now and it feels quite amazing when I sit and think about it. I always dreamt big and wanted to achieve big. That’s how you make your dreams come true,” is Kohli’s candid-speak.
He was once asked about his thoughts on his first international coach, Gary Kirsten’s words... “Like in life, in cricket too there are more bad days than good ones. So, if you can handle cricket, you can handle life”, Kohli hesitated little to admit, “to handle emotions of winning or losing is a big challenge and he’s right when he says that you have more bad days than good ones in cricket”.
For him, it’s a simple equation: When you don’t score runs, you get frustrated. That’s when you realise the difference between reality and the fairytale phase, when you were scoring runs continuously. It is difficult to accept that reality check. It comes with time and with experience.
Kohli realised it early on that “like in life, a batsman gets only one chance in an innings”.
“No matter how well you bat in the nets, you might still get out on the first ball in the match and you’ll be sitting outside and clapping for three days,” he says, talking about the crude reality that sometimes bites a cricketer.
Ready to adjust
Having reached heady professional heights so early on, Kohli needs to take a deep breath and find composure within. Instead of cursing the world for talking, he needs to sort out his personal life so that it doesn’t distract him from his professional duties. With many special innings adding a spark to his career, it’s easy to analyse that “it takes him the first dozen balls or so to realise how comfortable he is on that day.”
As he explains, “I analyse how well I’ve left the ball, how comfortable I was leaving the ones that were close to the stumps and how comfortable I was blocking the balls. If I can block the ball well when it is swinging, that’s when I know I am in my zone. When you fish and get beaten, you’re not sure where your offstump is and how much the ball is swinging.” This might just be the explanation to why Kohli’s success ratio is so high compared to great batsmen of all times.
Not surprising he has won praise from none other but Sir Vivian Richards recently for his on-field aggression and his batting skills. “Virat has the quality. He can give back as good as he gets. I like people who have the stomach for a good fight and Virat is one of them,” he said in a recent interview.
Pugnacious and daring, Kohli can adapt to new things well. But he was never so aggressive in his batting. When he was 16, he changed his batting technique a bit and started moving the feet inside the crease and began to shuffle.
His coach Raj Kumar Sharma says, “That brought a whole range to shots and completely changed his batting.” And “planning” is important for Kohli. On his own admission, “I go in there with plans — I am going to leave the balls pitched in a particular line, I am going to hit the ball only between two certain points in the field and not play a certain shot until I score a set number of runs.” He further explains how if something is pitched short at him, he goes for the runs since it is his scoring area. “And you need to focus on those plans throughout your innings for every ball you play, which is very difficult. If you don’t have a batting routine and a plan, it is very difficult to survive in international cricket,” he says.
Love life
Love brewed between India’s favourite cricketer, Virat Kohli and Btown diva, Anushka Sharma. The couple first met during an ad shoot in the year 2013, and it did not take too long for them to feel the sparks. However they well managed to keep all the details of their 2017 wedding hidden from the gossipmongers. After their fairy tale wedding in Italy, their personal and professional lives saw only ups. Recently, Virat, who is playing in the IPL for his team Royal Challengers, talked about his wife, and how she helps him switch off the stress. The cricketer was in conversation with AB de Villiers, and shared, “I think over the last more than a year or so, the best thing to have happened to me is me getting married. It's literally changed my whole world. I have the most beautiful wife, the most beautiful person.” He also went on to say, “That has been the most strong factor in my life to change the way I was. Before I was too intense in life and she (Anushka Sharma) always keeps me motivated, positive but at the same time we spend quality time with each other and totally get away from the game and that's the most important thing. I think I couldn't have been more lucky to have someone like that who can understand my mindset being in that position herself. I look forward to spending time with her and that's how I switch off.” Earlier Virat had said, “My wife has been keeping me motivated throughout, she deserves a lot of credit for this. She has been criticized a lot in the past, but she is one person who has kept me going throughout this tour and when times have been tough, and I am really grateful for that. When I met my wife I began to change. I came from a very different background from north India and I had no idea of what happens in any other sphere of society or anyone else’s life. So, her life was very different. It came with her own challenges & perspective on things.”
In an interview, Anushka had shared how busy her work life has become and had stated, “I have zero time to do anything other than working. The past three years, I’ve been shooting back-to-back and releasing movies. In the past couple of years, whatever work you’ve seen of mine, you can tell that there has been a range that I’ve tried to achieve. And it has been so consuming that I’ve not had time for anything else. So whatever time I get to unwind, I like to spend it with my family.” Anushka and Virat undoubtedly make a stunning couple together.
Spiritual side
His closest friends know that it’s not just the “aggression” their close buddy is known for. There is a spiritual side, too. “He talks to himself a lot. He plays shots in his mind before actually implementing on the field. Visualising is a big part of his game,” Kohli’s Delhi Ranji mates keep mentioning his mental strength.
Complacency is anathema to Kohli. “You can say that I am addicted to feeling good about winning matches for the team. And it’s a very bad addiction. That feeling of scoring runs and winning a game for your team is the best feeling in the world. I can’t explain it. It’s blissful.”
Indeed, the champions in life know the rules of the game and have a plan. Not for nothing has it been said that the difference between the “ordinary” and “extraordinary” is that “extra”. And Kohli seems to have that.
VIRATKOHLI BORN:
NOVEMBER 5, 1988
NICKNAME:
CHEEKU
BATTING STYLE:
RIGHT-HANDED
BOWLING STYLE:
RIGHT-ARM MEDIUMPACE BOWLER
PLACE IN TEAM:
CAPTAIN, INDIAN TEAM IN TEST CRICKET AND LIMITED-OVERS FORMAT; CAPTAIN, ROYAL CHALLENGERS, BANGALORE
HE RUNS THE VIRAT KOHLI FOUNDATION, AN NGO FOR UNDERPRIVILEGED KIDS.
DEEP DOWN INSIDE I WAS DETERMINED TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL INTERNATIONAL CRICKETER. I WATCHED MY IDOLS WIN MATCHES FOR INDIA AND I WOULD IMAGINE MYSELF IN THE INDIAN JERSEY HITTING THE WINNING RUNS
YOU CAN SAY THAT I AM ADDICTED TO FEELING GOOD ABOUT WINNING MATCHES FOR THE TEAM. AND IT’S A VERY BAD ADDICTION. THAT FEELING OF SCORING RUNS AND WINNING A GAME FOR YOUR TEAM IS THE BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD
Virat Kohli is the fastest batsmen to cross the 10,000-run mark in ODIs.
Kohli became the fastest player to reach 9,000 runs and he achieved the feat in 194 innings.
With 36 centuries, Kohli is the second batsman with the highest number of ODI tons after Sachin Tendulkar.
Kohli has the most number of centuries while chasing. He has scored 22 ODI centuries while Sachin Tendulkar stands second with 17.
Kohli has scored over 300 runs in a bilateral ODI series on six different occasions.
Kohli is the only player to have scored over 15,000 runs at an average of over 50 in international cricket.
Kohli is the first skipper to hit six ODI hundreds in a calendar year.
Kohli also became the only captain to score the most ODI runs in a year. The right-handed batsman scored 1,460 runs in 2017 and surpassed former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting's 1,424 runs in 2007.
Kohli holds the record for the most number of ODI tons as Indian captain.