It was against Adil Rashid’s leg-spin. It flew over mid-wicket. Virat Kohli had a celebratory punch of the air and rushed to celebrate the shot with Ravindra Jadeja at the non-striker’s end. It was also a celebration of the result from the Indian captain.
Kohli had mastered another chase. The profanity of his latest boundary aside, the chase was not played out in a battle between two teams in coloured clothes. It, instead, involved the red cherry, and was devoid of the onslaught Kohli is known to launch in a chase of targets. In Rajkot, Kohli chased a draw. An act he was yet to establish his pedigree in. But it was an act he had mastered by the time the players shook hands after an attritional final-day battle.
The Indian cricket lover had been spoilt by the assurance Rahul Dravid’s bat would provide them with every time the team found itself in a muddle for more than a decade. The generation after Dravid defined aggression, but was yet to display the ability to bat to save a game. Kohli had been the master of all he surveyed over the last few years. Except for the ability to grind out a draw.
New chapter
But Kohli’s two-hour stay on Sunday introduced this Indian team to a new chapter – one that talks of a forgotten craft of batting. It spoke of how success in Test cricket is not always measured by victories or how aggression need not guarantee success in the game’s longest format.
When Kohli cleared his front foot and lofted the Rashid delivery to the fence, he was aware that game was all but safe. For most of the 89 balls Kohli took guard to prior to the risky shot, he had eluded the temptation to attack – his natural instinct.
The aggression existed, but it was more in Kohli’s mind than in his actions with the willow. It was channelised aggression. Throughout his knock, he chewed gum with swagger. And he chewed it more prominently every time he defended a delivery he would have otherwise destroyed. He was aware that one false shot could drown his entire team. Hence, he resisted. And he played a captain’s knock, with a difference.
Pride and ego
Kohli’s presence in the middle is defined by aggression. The opposition rarely dares to attack him, for they know he fights fire with fire. But that is what England wanted on Sunday. They hoped he would slip in an attempt to stamp his authority. They could afford to with India two down in the 17th over, and with about 33 overs more on a pitch with cracks and a prominent rough. They welcomed the Indian Test captain with men all around his bat.
A silly point, a forward short-leg, a regulation slip and a leg-slip all combined with Jonny Bairstow behind the stumps to welcome Kohli. The objective was to burst his ego. But by the end of the game, Kohli walked back with his pride and ego intact.
In the course of Kohli’s innings, he was beaten by turn, he was early to deliveries from the pacers, nearly got caught and nearly ran himself out, but the bottomline was that he hung in there.
“When you are put under pressure, if you bat out the innings, if you play a draw, then you understand as a team when you need to switch gears and trust your defense and slow the game down,” Kohli, who remained unbeaten on 49, said after the match. “Those things are very important to learn as a Test side if you have to be consistent over a period of time and not just a shot in the dark.”
In control
And through his stint under the Rajkot sun, he did not lose his cool. He was in control of the game and the situation. A Zafar Ansari delivery pitched and produced unexpected bounce. It was a left-arm spinner’s delivery, which could have caused little harm. But, even amidst maintaining an unmoved focus, Kohli saw the funny side. He asked the square leg umpire for the first bouncer of the over. The umpires, with smiles on their faces, could only oblige.
But the pressure never ceased to exist. It peaked when Ravichandran Ashwin was snapped up by Ansari with more than 10 overs to go. His wicket had packed half of the Indian side back to the pavilion. That is when WriddhimanSaha walked out, and appeared intent on stepping down to most deliveries from the spinners.
The pitch was turning square and the hosts could not afford a slip up, but when Saha danced down and lofted Moeen Ali for a boundary, Kohli ignored the danger, and applauded his partner. It may not have been a shot Kohli would have preferred at that stage, but there was little chance he would provide his partner with anything but support.
Saha’s method was not called for, and he perished soon after. Jadeja, with a lack of exploits with the bat in Test cricket, was next. Again, Kohli spoke to him constantly, filling him up with the confidence to see off the last half hour. With Kohli’s motivation for support, Jadeja survived. India survived. The captain had fought, and he had helped his team to fight.
Message to the world
“Well, at least we know how to draw games now,” Kohli said. “Before that, some people obviously were sceptical about our side knowing how to draw games. We won games or we lost games. I spoke with Jadeja out there that it was an opportunity for both of us to improve on another aspect of the game.
“Maybe in Test cricket in the future, we will have this situation again. Maybe we will have to apply ourselves again and show character, so have the intent to get runs in between but play percentage cricket, figure out areas where you want to take ones or hit boundaries, but at the same time, be sure of your defense as well. So, it was a challenging situation but one that we countered really well, I thought.”
The fight displayed was also a message to world cricket – that opponents must take Kohli’s men lightly at their own peril. Kohli’s side, after all, now knows that they can win at will. And if in case they cannot, they can draw.