Long live the King

Rudraksh Kikani
May 12
7 min read

It’s 2014, the Indian cricket team is about to begin the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Adelaide, Australia. Indian captain MS Dhoni is injured and a young and fiery Virat Kohli is named as India’s captain for the match.

At the end of day 4, Australia has put on a 363-run lead, a mountain for India to climb on the last day. This was almost an impossible score to chase down on the last day, still is. But in 2014, most teams would’ve just played out that match for a draw. Afterall, it would’ve been a good result after Australia scored 517 in the first innings.

Kohli wasn’t having any of it. His message was simple: “No matter what target they set us, we are going to chase it down,” Kohli said in the team huddle on Day 4. After the day’s play, Dhoni told Kohli to reconsider this approach, he said he believes Kohli can chase it down, but a captain needs to consider whether his team can.

“Only if we try can we know na? Whether they can do it or not,” Kohli replied. “We have not chased 360 on the last day of a Test match ever before because we haven’t yet tried to do that. Let us try and give it a shot. Unless we try, how will we know how good we are?”

Kohli went on to score 141 off 175 deliveries on the final day, following up his 115 in the first innings. And although India lost the match by 48 runs, it was very clear, a new age in Indian cricket had begun.

The above story captures Kohli’s mindset perfectly. Kohli not only preached a win-first mentality, but also led by example. He has the most runs scored by an Indian captain (fourth most overall) — 5864. He did this in 113 innings at an average of 54.80.

He unequivocally kick started a new period for Indian cricket, one that made him India’s most successful test captain and led India to test wins in Australia, England and South Africa. Kohli redefined test cricket for India. He raised a new generation of fast bowlers that would go on to win matches for him all around the world. He built a team that still reverberates through India’s current test side, even three years after he left captaincy.

Ambassador of the game

For a generation that saw T20 cricket grow, franchise leagues expand and short-from cricket prosper, Kohli made test cricket look fanciable. It is not an overstatement to say Kohli revived test cricket. I cannot overstate the former Indian captain’s influence on the longest form of the game, especially in India.

Test cricket’s number one challenge is its length and its uneventfulness. Children growing up in the 2010s had so much white-ball cricket to consume that an affinity with a “boring” five-day format was hard to establish. No other format symbolized cricket being a “gentleman’s game” like test cricket.

But that’s where Virat Kohli flourished. He went to Australia and stood up to the ruthless Aussies. Controversially, he flipped off the Australian media in his first tour down under. He went to England, and despite a historically bad tour, he was still that chirpy, sometimes annoying fella on the field.

Kohli made you not want to miss a ball of action. He would be standing in the slips and constantly talking, sledging the batter, making him uncomfortable. A ball would zip past the batter’s bat and you would hear the loudest “howzatt!” from no. 18. A wicket would fall and Kohli would set off, running around the field, jumping and punching the air. He would flaunt a wicket more than the bowler.

How could you not love that. For hot-blooded teenagers who wanted a place to channel their aggression, Kohli’s fire felt warm, it felt like home. And he made sure to convert those on-field theatrics to runs with the bat. For a good while, he dominated the format all-around the world like no other. He was incredible from 2012-15, but the period between 2016-19 really crowned the King.

In 2016, Kohli scored 1215 runs whilst averaging an outlandish 75.9 and scored four centuries in 18 innings. The next year, Kohli maintained his average, scoring 1059 runs in 16 innings with five centuries at an average of 75.6. In 2018, he took his run tally even further. He scored 1307 runs in 24 innings with five centuries, averaging 54.1.

Kohli looked unbeatable in this period. It looked like not a single thing could slow him down. How do you stop a freak of nature that has amassed over 3500 years and 14 centuries in three years. Out of these, seven were double centuries that he scored only between 2016 and 2019. But his batting only went so far in making him a test great.

If cricket fans look at Kohli’s test numbers in a few years, they would be fair to say Kohli wasn’t a test great. He’s ended his career just short of 10,000 runs with an average of 46.85. There are a plethora of batters who have finished their career with similar stats, South African batter Hashim Amla being one of them.

So what makes Kohli an all-time great? The answer lies in his unapologetic approach towards the game. Test cricket was a war for Virat. He urged his team to pour in their sweat, blood and tears all five days regardless of the result. There are countless matches to pick apart for his brilliance with the captain’s hat, but Lord’s 2021 probably stands above the rest.

“For 60 overs, they should feel hell out there,” Virat said in the team huddle before England began their final innings. India had declared post lunch and gave England two sessions to chase down 272. That match was most certainly heading towards a draw, but all Kohli wanted to do was win.

“If I see someone laughing, then see!” Kohli said. And Kohli lived by that. He stood at slip and forward short leg for the majority of the day. He would collect the ball and walk past the batter, talking his head off whilst shining the red Dukes. He injected an unholy energy into the Indian bowling lineup. India’s pace powerhouse was as fiery and as pumped up as anyone had ever seen.

India managed to bowl England out for 120 in 51.5 overs. Lord’s 2021 was irrefutably one of India’s best wins overseas, if not the best. It was a win forged in fire. It was a win spearheaded by India’s best test pace powerhouse ever. But it was Kohli who had ignited that fire, it was the Kohli-led army that had broken through the Lord's fortress. India had claimed the home of cricket for them.

An emotional sendoff

Not seeing “Virat Kohli” in the list when the England squad is announced is going to be a bitter pill to swallow. I will probably be momentarily overjoyed when India’s second wicket falls, but then remember Kohli’s not coming out to bat anymore. No more of riling up the crowd, no more of those enthusiastic dances on the field and no more of no. 18 padding up in whites. With Kohli goes a part of my childhood, with Kohli goes a part of my heart.

Kohli has broken through the boundaries of statistics and famous wins for me. I was seven when he made his test debut. As Kohli grew as a test player, I grew up with him. I remember the 2012 Border-Gavaskar Trophy and seeing a young Kohli stand up to the Aussies, almost too aggressively.

I remember watching the procession that 2016-19 was, the absolute air of inevitability that surrounded Kohli everytime he walked out to bat. Crowds would celebrate India’s second wicket just like they did with Sachin. And as the crowd erupted in “Kohli! Kohli!” cheers, Kohli would walk into the field, shadow batting, warming up and twisting the bat in his hands.

If you walked through Indian cricket fields in 2018, you would see kids twisting the bat in their hands. Imitating Kohli, trying his cover drive and trying to replicate their idol they saw on TV. For years, millions of nervous Indians would be refreshing their phones, glued to their TVs and asking others if Kohli was still batting.

India’s 2nd wicket fell and the nation held its breath, in relief and in agony. For years, Kohli being on the crease meant the Indian innings was going to be a good one. For a team very unhabitual with winning, Kohli made winning seem regular, almost boring. There have been better batters than no. 18 in India itself, but probably none as great of match winners as him.

With Kohli, India prospered, building one of the greatest home legacies in the history of the game. With Kohli, India rode a wave of aggression, channeled towards brilliance.

He won’t get to 10,000 runs, he won’t finish with a 50+ average but he most certainly ends his test career after leading global test cricket into its golden era. It was perhaps destined for Kohli’s last day in test whites to be as a captain (SCG, 2025).