Rolling back the years: Virat Kohli

There’s been so much talk around that first T20I between India and the West Indies and rightly so! It should have just been another normal T20I match except that there was something different, something we’ve seen so often in the past, yet something we haven’t particularly experienced in the last year or so.

It was Virat Kohli’s masterful pacing of an innings and clinical strokeplay to dish out yet another victory for the Indian juggernaut. Some may ask, what’s new in that? Doesn’t he always do it? Well, don’t worry, I’ll walk you through each and every detail of it!

Let’s first go back to 2017, India taking on the Windies in a T20I, Virat Kohli dismissed for 30 odd by Kesrick Williams. Now for those following the CPL(Carribean Premier League), Williams has a particular celebration after he gets a wicket. He brings out an imaginary notebook wherein he writes the batsman’s name he dismissed. He made sure that Kohli experienced this celebration too. Now obviously, Kohli wasn’t going to let that go, the fighter in Kohli would remember that. With that being said, let’s move further into this article and see how Kohli got back at Williams.

Come 2019, first T20I at Hyderabad, the Windies post a massive 207 and India haven’t started off all that well with Rohit Sharma being dismissed early. In walks Kohli, with the usual aggression and determination to carry India to yet another victory. Let’s dive into his innings and why it was special.

We know how much Kohli likes to impose himself on the game and the opposition, but unlike the other days, he really struggled to get going with just 3 runs of his first 9 balls. In fact, a good chunk of the deliveries he faced, he tried hitting them a lot harder than he probably should have and really seemed to be struggling with his timing. It was pretty easy to make out his frustration as cuss words were being hurled left and right. Forget the opposition, even the umpires weren’t spared! There were a few heated exchanges between Kohli and Williams and more than once, the umpires had to step in and intervene.

In all the years I have seen Kohli bat, very rarely have I seen him struggle as much to time a cricket ball and still manage to stay at the crease. The man always known for his elegance and class, was playing ugly heaves through mid-wicket for singles. This went on for about 30 deliveries and luckily for India, Rahul on the other end was still batting well and so Kohli still had time to sort himself out.

Kohli eventually got a couple of boundaries and moved on to 50 off just 35 deliveries, despite struggling so much. What followed was an absolute delight to watch. Jason Holder was bowling to Kohli and pitched one up, outside off and Kohli stood firm and almost effortlessly, deposited the ball into the stands with an extension of his arms, right behind the bowler, over the long off boundary. There was something about that shot that made every avid cricket watcher believe that the master had regained his briefly lost touch. This was followed by a cut over point and an absolutely dismissive flick that flew to the mid-wicket boundary and then you knew, you just knew, that the King of all chases had returned. When he hit some of those boundaries against Kesrick Williams, Kohli made sure to bring out that notebook and flip a few pages and put his signature in there, a call back to 2017. All Kesrick Williams could do was smile sheepishly for he had been given a taste of his own medicine! With every boundary Kohli hit, he pumped his fists and punched the air and shouted a few words that are best left unmentioned. Let’s just say, the Delhi inside him was expressing itself and the long lost angry boy was still there in him, somewhere still.

Towards the end of the knock, the thoughts of ‘Oh will India chase this down!?’ had turned into statements of ‘How fast will India chase this down!’. The knock bought back memories of so many of Kohli’s innings in run chases and the flamboyance and ease with which he demolished bowling attacks. It was reminiscent of the 133* he scored against Sri Lanka in Australia in the CB Series, under similar conditions and for the Kohli fan boy in me, it was absolutely awe inspiring and a reminder of why so many youngsters of this generation play the game in the first place. Dare I say, this might be the greatest T20I knock of all time!