The numbers. The statistical output. They can be tall like a lanky New York skyscraper. But they’d account to nothing and hold to little of value if they wouldn’t lead to impact. Which is why maybe it makes
sense to say in addition to 28,600 plus international runs from 566 matches across formats, Virat Kohli- King to millions who follow cricket- has inspired talents both in and outside India- to play hard. To compete harder! Today, Virat Kohli is more than an accomplished cricketer who won a T20 World Cup and helped his beloved team reach the final of India’s most exasperating World Cup tournament in the fifty over format, circa 2023.
Virat Kohli is an understudy of self confidence and where it can lead one to, perhaps the most solid byline if there’s such on a book titled “sorcery with the bat in 50-over cricket” and a tireless monster who exhausts the world’s finest bowlers, irrespective of them being wrist spinners or toe crushing Yorker exponents.
He’s box office gold like The Dark Knight or The Last Samurai when it opened in theatres back in Hollywood. Virat Kohli is so much more than the classic success story of that quintessential very unhinged chole bhature-loving Delhi boy with huge hunger to succeed and that brash temper that was yet to come of age.
Virat Kohli is a testimony to the fact that glory comes to the one who’s willing to drag the body through the drudge, time after time, all in the pursuit of success of one’s country.
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He’s not a hint but a glaring example of the realisation that you can pick yourself up despite experiencing most harrowing spate of individual failure by simply deciding to hang in there, and not quit. By deciding to try one more time.
How?
From November 2019- to- September 2022, the same Virat Kohli who today has 55 centuries in ODI cricket, and is a first to reach 13,000 runs in the format batting at #3 hadn’t hit a single century in any format of the game.
Today, when he raises the bat anywhere in the world, be it Lord’s in England or Colombo in Sri Lanka or the Eden Park in New Zealand, cricket wins something, too. Not just the author of the most daunting centuries who’s endured, sacrificed, cheated himself out of the concept of cheat days itself and attained salvation by virtue of sheer run making.
He’s tormented nearly every single international opponent of his, reminded the cricket fan about the thing called the love for the grind and emerged as an ambassadorial figure of the sport who’s given back richly to the sport that made him.
And quite frankly, it’s not even the 4100 plus runs in the T20I format or the 2 epic IPL titles with the RCB or the 9000 plus runs in the red ball form that have constructed the Kohli legend.
It’s the fact he still loves the game, wants to excel, desires to smash bowlers like a king cobra slithers an unsuspecting adversary that explains why Virat Kohli is thriving.
That a 38-year-old continues to matter at the exact same time where a 15 year Sooryavanshi and the seemingly indefatigable duo of Samson and Abhishek are smashing everyone out of the park around the world speaks volumes of why Kohli is relevant. And may always be.
There’s the method to his madness. He still isn’t and never was- see the ball, hit the ball- kind of cricketer. There’s class in the cover drive. The crowd feels the thrill and experiences the disappointment even today with Virat at the wicket, just as it did a few hours ago when the right hander struck 74 to win India a game they nearly complicated when it should not have been the case.
There’s this remarkable ease with which Kohli tackles the seaming delivery to nudge it to the off side demonstrating gap finding at its best. There’s still the poise in him in the manner of his leaving the waywardly delivered ball that goes away from the off stump. And like a good undercover agent always knows the way to the safe house, Kohli knows where his off stump is even after 633 international innings in an India jersey.
His commitment to fitness, much like Bruce Lee, who became hard on himself every single year instead of being on the wane, is the same when he first arrived. In fact, Virat Kohli has only gone stricter in terms of being disciplined to a certain way of diet. He eschews the calories the same way he dodges the possibly ill fated desire to fend for something too wide outside the line of the stumps.
The dedication to his craft, evident in each of his 765 2023 World Cup runs, as also during the 76 run knock against the mighty Proteas side in the T20 World Cup final, is immense.
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It’s akin to the surreal artworks Michelangelo left behind for an entire world to marvel, which would have come by way of gentle strokes and fine touches to his vivid hues.
More than anything else, Virat Kohli is as hungry for success aged 38 as he was when he first arrived. That’s akin to a John Wick who’s not done yet despite annihilating dozens of adversaries and still being trigger happy.
In what’s to come- and what’s forthcoming is the 2027 ODI World Cup- could either be disappointment or peak run making. But what’s known is that the man who’s come such a long way isn’t done yet. Not yet. Happy bday, king Kohli. Have a great one!
