It's Tough Being Virat Kohli
Truth be told he does not have it anywhere near as bad as he thinks
It’s the fourth morning of the Test match.
I’m summarily stopped in my tracks as I try to enter SuperSport Park.
“I have a problem with this,” the security guard says politely but firmly.
He has my Covid-19 vaccination certificate in one hand and my accreditation card for the match in the other.
“Please lower your mask.”
I do so and he looks back and forth between my face, my accreditation pass and the certificate.
“This is not your vaccination certificate. It has your name, but this is not your photo.”
Then the penny drops and I am relieved.
I tell him that, approximately one billion Indians have the same photo on their vaccination certificate and it is of our noble leader, Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India.
“Eeesh, why he want his photo on everybody’s certificate?” he asks.
I’m not the only one who has no answer to that question so we exchange a quick fist bump and I am on my way to the press box.
The day begins with KL Rahul at the crease, as it had on Day 3.
Before play began, the discussions in the press box were around when India would declare. The broad consensus was that a target of 250 should be enough, but India would prefer to have 350 on the board.
There was some gallows humour from the local press, given their team had been 32 for 4 and could have easily been 32 for 5 in the first innings, not long after England were bowled out for 68 in their Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
The highest successful chase in this ground was 251, but even that came in a contrived match between Hansie Cronje’s South Africa and England, where both teams forfeit their middle innings.
In a match that was not rigged, the highest successful run chase at Centurion was only 226, when the home team knocked off the runs against Sri Lanka back in 1998.
But the tone of the conversation changed quickly enough. There was no marathon from Rahul.
The pitch has quickened up a bit and South Africa’s fast bowlers did not waste the hard new ball, as they had on the first morning.
Shardul Thakur went quickly and Rahul followed him.
All eyes were not on Virat Kohli, who had joined Cheteshwar Pujara out in the middle.
Just as run-less Rahane had looked anything but out of form in his positive first-innings knock, Kohli too appeared in total control before he had thrown it away with a loose drive to a ball well outside the off stump.
Surely, he would make it up in the second innings?
Kohli began, just as he had in the first dig, with absolute surety.
Here was a player who was not intimidated by the conditions or the bowling.
Here was a batsman who could not be hurried by pace, even if you were Kagiso Rabada or Lungi Ngidi.
Here was a batsman who was looking for runs constantly, pushing his partner to go the extra mile, extra quick, whenever the opportunity presented itself.
But, there is a fine line between looking to score runs and looking to dominate.
There are scores of batsmen who have been successful in Test cricket without looking to dominate.
It’s safe to say Kohli is not one of them.
Even when the runs are not coming at the usual volume that he is used to, Kohli looks to impose himself on the opposition via his bat.
Since he last made a Test hundred, Kohli averages 26.08 from 25 innings in 14 Tests with five half-centuries.
These are not the numbers we are used to from an India No. 4.
These are definitely not the numbers you associate with a player who has long been called the best batsman in the world.
Back to the second innings in Centurion, where things are not going quite according to plan for India.
Marco Jansen floats one wide outside off stump and Kohli takes the bait, driving hard and nicking off to the slip cordon.
It’s a ball that should have been left alone, but if you keep leaving the ball alone, how do you get on top of the opposition?
It is common knowledge that bowlers play on the ego of batsmen. Especially great ones, because without that, dismissing them becomes that much harder.
Here was Jansen, a kid who had been “discovered” so to say, when he had bowled to Kohli in the India nets when the team had toured South Africa last.
And he had the last laugh at Centurion.
Perhaps South Africa’s video analyst and coaching staff had pointed out something to Jansen.
According to CricViz, who do a deep dive into cricket analytics, the fast bowling line that has (on average) dismissed Kohli in the last three years is as follows:
2019: Middle stump
2020: 9 cm outside off
2021: 26 cm outside off
While this data on its own is meaningless — for it could just be that bowlers are operating differently to Kohli — it is also instructive.
And, unfortunately for the great batsman, his twin dismissals, almost identical, in Centurion, bear this out impeccably.
Even pointing out the numbers or the bowling line data is unlikely to go down well with Kohli.
I have never met a cricketer who takes criticism well — especially when it comes from a journalist, someone who has not played the game at a decent level — but I do know players who will accept reporting of facts and highlighting of data.
In Kohli’s case, even asking a question of him is considered overstepping your bounds as a journalist.
And it was just so with Kevin Pietersen, not coincidentally Kohli’s good mate.
“It’s tough being me, in this dressing-room,” Pietersen had famously said in 2012 when he seemingly had the world at his feet.
For KP, it was always himself versus the rest of the world. It did not matter if there was merit in an argument or value in a discussion, KP always believed the world was out to get him.
Kohli seems to have adopted a similar mentality.
Till recently India’s captain in all formats, the most loved cricketer in the world — he follows 230 accounts, has posted 1283 times and yet has 176 million followers on Instagram — Kohli seems to subscribe to the same worldview.
The truth of the matter is that Kohli enjoys a following that might have even surpassed that of Sachin Tendulkar.
The ground reality is that Kohli has the backing of a vast majority of India’s cricket fans despite not being able to lead his team to victory in any ICC global event or even secure an IPL trophy for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
How do you take so much love, so much adulation, so much reverence, and set it aside, only to focus on the minority who may dislike you, not respect you enough or be your cheerleaders?
Coming back to the data of dismissals, and to the other chap who commanded Kohli-like fandom in India, let’s go to Sydney in 2004.
Tendulkar was still at the peak of his powers.
His was the wicket the opposition wanted more than any other.
And, simply because he had been dismissed playing at balls he could have left alone, Tendulkar decided to put the cover drive away.
Realistically, he did not need to do so.
But he did it for himself and his team.
What followed was a New Year miracle of sorts. Tendulkar batted 10 hours and 13 minutes for 241, handling 436 deliveries, even as India ended on 705 for 7 declared in the first innings.
After choosing to bat, they had ensured they could not lose.
Australia’s key bowlers at the time were Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie and Nathan Bracken.
None of them could make a dent, as Tendulkar had chosen to deny them any all chances.
In doing so, Tendulkar realised that he would have to lose his money shot, the drive anywhere between wide mid-off and extra-cover.
But, Tendulkar put team above self. Tendulkar settled down to a rhythm he was not used to, and subdued his ego, if not ignoring it altogether.
Which is why India’s greatest batsman of the modern era does not command the kind of respect Tendulkar did and does.
Kohli might be the best batsman of his generation, but he may find that genuine respect may yet elude him, for there may be more to life in cricket than runs or wickets after you have reached a certain level.
It’s tough being Kohli, truly.