What India needs most from captain Kohli is runs

For nearly five years from December 2014, Indian cricket followers had regularly been treated to Virat Kohli leaping high in the air, whipping off his helmet and holding his arms aloft to celebrate yet another international hundred. A staggering 44 (21 in Tests, 23 in One-Day Internationals) of the Indian captain’s 70 cumulative tons was packed between December 2014 and November 2019; on average, he made nine centuries every year, phenomenal by even the most exacting standard.

It almost beggars belief that, when the third Test against England gets underway on Wednesday (August 25) at Headingley, Kohli would have entered a 641st successive day without touching three-figures at the highest level. His last hundred came on November 23, 2019, on the second day of the first pink-ball Test in India. Kohli treated a sizeable gathering at the Eden Gardens to another exhibition of subliminal batsmanship against Bangladesh, chugging along to 136 and setting up an innings win. Since then, the willow that he has employed at once as the rapier and the broadsword has gone cold, particularly in the Test arena.

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Kohli’s last ODI hundred dates back to August 2019, but he has topped 50 in eight of his subsequent 15 hits, including four times in his last five outings. In T20Is, he has been equally prolific, with four knocks in excess of 50 in the last six hits. Test cricket, though, has been an entirely different cup of tea.

Since the start of 2020, when India travelled to New Zealand for a two-match series, the law of diminishing returns has trapped Kohli in a vice-like grip. Ten Tests and 17 innings have yielded a frugal 407 runs at an unimpressive 23.94; his highest in this phase is 74, one of only three times when he has breached the half-century mark.

Unsurprisingly, this is the longest match-span without a century for the dynamic batsman from Delhi, who made his Test debut in the Caribbean in June 2011. Kohli therefore finds himself in uncharted territory, much like he did in the same country in 2014 when five Tests yielded just 134 runs and James Anderson seemed to have his measure, dismissing him four times. On that occasion, Kohli bounced back in roaring fashion, with four centuries in his next series, against Australia, to kickstart the most productive phase of his storied career. What lies in store now?

That India’s fortunes are no longer inextricably linked to Kohli’s magic with the bat is evident not merely from their superhuman efforts in Australia in December-January when the captain was away on paternity leave, but also from their 3-1 conquest of England at home in February-March. While Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have had the spotlight turned on them for their anaemic returns during the same phase as Kohli’s prolonged barren run, Kohli has been spared much of the scrutiny because he brings more to the table than just runs. But no one will be more aware than the skipper himself that he must start pulling his weight again with the bat consistently, for his own sake as much as the team’s.

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In the last 20 months when six of Kohli’s 10 Tests have been overseas, he has appeared particularly vulnerable early in the piece. Almost subconsciously, he seems to have deviated from the pattern that brought him 593 runs in England in 2018. In a return to the model of 2014 when, in trying to guard against the ball coming in, Kohli overcompensated in his trigger by getting his right foot on off-stump and therefore found himself reaching out to balls well wide, he is again feeling for deliveries he could so comfortably let go when he has just got to the middle. In this era of readily available data, word spreads faster than ever before; bowlers are feeding off Kohli’s propensity to feel ball on bat from the get-go, necessitating the Indian captain to make technical and mindset changes if he is to turn the corner. Towards that end, the week-long gap between the second and third Tests couldn’t have been timelier.

It’s not as if the coaching staff, or the man himself with 94 Test caps, are unaware of what has been plaguing India’s best batsman of the last decade. The adjustments required might be minute, but it will take huge will to make the changes and stick with them. That is the immediate challenge, with three Tests still to be played in this series.

Kohli on song is an absolute treat, but he brings more than just aesthetic impact. He oozes aggression with the bat, not so much in peppering the fence regularly but with the intelligence and intensity with which he runs between the wickets. It instantly lifts the mood in the Indian dressing-room to see their skipper dictating terms, while also deflating the bowlers because even good deliveries are tapped effortlessly into gaps and the strike constantly turns over, making it impossible for them to set batsmen up.

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Clearly not beating himself up over the unusual trickle, Kohli is still a livewire on the field. He is the engine-room of the team and several of his excitable mates take the aggression cue from their fearless leader. Kohli has managed to insulate the rest of his cricketing persona from his batting inconsistencies, his tactical and strategic evolution as captain matching his growth as a competent catcher in the slip cordon.

As crucial as these are to the overall scheme of things, it’s runs India need the most from Kohli. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have been superb up top, cushioning the blows stemming from a misfiring middle-order, but the dynamics change perceptibly when the skipper is up and running. Also from a practical standpoint, India can ill-afford for their three most experienced batsmen to not contribute consistently enough to make a difference, particularly given that there is a touch of fragility to the lower-order – the second innings at Lord’s notwithstanding – that is packed with four fast bowlers.