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View: No more a superhero, our own bratman can try being batman again


In April 2021, I had written in this column about how, over the years, I had become an Indian cricket fan and not necessarily an India cricket fan. Virat Kohli becoming India’s Test captain, and then captain across all formats, had made my transformation complete. And I know it is not just me.

I found repugnant Kohli’s staggering sense of entitlement, his conviction that he could get away with anything (he frequently did), his bullying of umpires, his disrespectful conduct towards opposition players, his chest-thumping, eye popping, repulsive body language, and his smugness and arrogance. As India cricket captain, he was the worst possible ambassador our country could have had.

Also – and this is just as important – he was a superhero and role model to millions of young Indian cricket fans and aspiring players. To them, it seemed as though snarling and swearing were the epitome of cricketing conduct. After all, riding roughshod is the easier – and more alluring – option in life. It is much harder to practise restraint and cultivate dignity and poise.

And now, suddenly (or, perhaps, not as suddenly as outsiders would imagine), Kohli is no longer captain in any format of the game. He resigned from the T20 captaincy in October 2021 (and said, with characteristic arrogance and entitlement, that he would like to continue leading India in the other formats). The selectors, of the opinion that the team should have only white-ball captain, removed him from the ODI captaincy. Finally, after losing the Test series 1-2 to South Africa (a series in which India had been overwhelming favourites to win), Kohli stepped down from the Test captaincy.

Fittingly, the enduring image of Kohli’s final outing as India captain will remain the graceless (again characteristic), misguided outburst over the stump microphone, berating the South Africa broadcasters for having a part in India’s downfall in the series. Not that India needed any help in that regard in this particular series.

Kohli, having flown so close to the sun for so long, has now, Icarus-like, wings scorched, crash landed on earth. He now inhabits a new reality. For years, he was the sole, unquestioned power centre of Indian cricket. No one dared touch him. Now, the cloak of invincibility has slipped. Kohli could brush aside administrators, the coach, the board, and players. Now, he is simply a player. Perhaps India’s biggest star player, but still merely a player. It will take quite some getting used to.

For his sake, and for the sake of Indian cricket, one hopes that the floodgate of runs opens again. He needs that to happen. So does his team. He once used to be the best batter across all formats in the contemporary game. But he has not scored a century in any format of the game since November 22, 2019 (Test against Bangladesh). He averages 28.14 in Tests in the past two years. Kohli needs to find in the attic of his memory the ability that allowed him to play match-defining innings almost at will. A monumental batting record may well be his true legacy to Indian cricket.

Kohli is India’s most successful captain. His record — despite the huge blot of lack of success in ICC tournaments – speaks for itself. Yet, he leaves behind a team with a brittle, underperforming middle order; a vaunted pace attack that, as we saw recently in South Africa, runs out of ideas against obdurate batters; one of the world’s greatest spinners who is not an automatic selection; and a band of men who are so convinced of their right to win matches that they remain in denial when they don’t.

Two examples. After the 36 all out in Adelaide in December 2020, Kohli asked us not to make a mountain out of a molehill. After failing to make the semifinal of the recent T20 World Cup, Ravindra Jadeja said India’s exit was down to merely two bad days.

Kohli’s tenure as captain is a morality tale coloured by hubris and overreach. Its conclusion was inescapable.

(The writer is author of After Tendulkar: The New Stars of Indian Cricket.)



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