- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
VIRAT Kohli has a fantastic record as the captain in Tests. In only 63 games since he took over in 2015, the man has led India to win 37 times and lost only 15 times while 11 games were drawn. Only South Africa’s Graeme Smith (53 wins out of 109 games) and Australia’s Ricky Ponting (48 wins out of 77) and Steve Waugh (41 wins out of 57) are ahead of the Indian now.
But not many people talk about these aspects of Kohli’s captaincy. He is more in discussions for something not positive – sledging.
The second Test match that India won over England at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground was one of the most absorbing ones in the rich cricket rivalry between the two powerhouses of the game. The hosts, despite ending the penultimate day as the favourite side to win the match, ended up losing it by 151 runs to concede 0-1 lead to the Indians in the five-match series.
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But more than the battle between the bat and ball on the final day that kept the spectators fascinated, post-match analyses saw mentions of the several ugly instances of sledging that the match saw. Particularly, the verbal clash between Kohli and England strike bowler James Anderson was in talks all over. Former England opener Nick Compton even went to the extent of calling Kohli “the most foul-mouthed individual” on social media after India won the match but deleted the tweet later after facing backlash.
When Kohli asked India to give India ‘hell’ at Lord’s
For many Indian fans, Compton’s viewpoint may look more like a frustration since England lost. But there is no denying the fact that the 33-year-old Kohli is not among the calmest of captains the game has seen.
For Kohli, on-field clashes perhaps help his cricket. As he said after the Lord’s game, “The tension in the field in our second innings, what happened there, helped us.” He was referring to how the England team came after Jasprit Bumrah or pacer Ollie Robinson went at the Indian batsmen. Man of the match KL Rahul also said that it is how the team is – “You go after one of our guys and all XI of us will come back.”
Kohli’s abusive gestures at the England side from the pavilion when Bumrah played that precious knock of 34 not out in the second innings also made it evident that he was not ready to let it go.
The way this series is shaping up, the Lord’s incidents will certainly not be the last and this is where Kohli’s captaincy comes under the scanner time and again. After having led his country in 63 Tests, the most by an Indian player, why is it that Kohli never allows his mind to cool down?
India replicated their 2018-19 win over Australia in the 2020-21 Test series by the identical 2-1 margin. But while Kohli had to do a lot of animated moves to earn India their first-ever Test series win Down Under in 2018-19, a more composed Ajinkya Rahane did the same in 2020-21. Given India’s strength as a cricketing side on foreign wickets, does the regular captain really need to spit so much fire to win games?
The answer lies more in the Delhi cricketer’s nature than what seems more logical. Kohli’s captaincy has in a way imported the Australian essence in India’s playing style and with England turning into India’s final frontier of sort instead of Australia, one supposes Kohli banks more on his raw energy to unsettle the opponents, just as the strategy paid off in Australia.
The captain has brought into play a fourth department in his team’s playing style besides batting, bowling and fielding and that is aggression. Sourav Ganguly, too, was an aggressive captain but he was more into an assertive body language. Kohli has taken the art to a level which is a little short of physical contact.
May be that is how the ‘new India’ likes to have it. The country has come a long way since its Gandhian and Nehruvian days when the Hindus had the ill-reputation of meek people. Not the same any more, at least till Kohli is around. Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah had once called Kohli the “world’s worst behaved player” and he was brutally trolled for that.
As long as Kohli’s billions of supporters are loving his style and India are winning, the beastly sledging on the ground will go unnoticed. To the England cricketers, focus on your game and not how Kohli greets you on the wicket.
