It might be hard to remember, but in the initial stages of his career, Virat Kohli was known as a limited-overs specialist. He made his ODI debut for India in 2008, was an established middle-order player by the time the team won the World Cup in 2011, and, in 2012, he was named the ICC’s ODI Player of the Year. He only made his Test debut in 2011, and wasn’t named to a Test team of the year until 2017.
It took Kohli four Tests to record his first 50, and eight matches for his first century, in his 14th innings. His batting average first crossed 40 after 10 matches, and it took him 52 matches to cross all-important threshold of 50, the mark that separates the very good from the great. That came in 2016, during India‘s home series against England.
So for the first five years of his Test career, he wasn’t all that great.
Well, look at him now.
On Tuesday Kohli became the first person to do a clean sweep of ICC’s mens’ awards – ICC Cricketer of the Year, ODI Player of the Year, and Test Player of the Year for 2018, and the second person, after Ricky Ponting in 2006 and 2007, to win Cricketer of the Year in consecutive years. He’s also captain of both the men’s Test and ODI teams of the year.
Remarkably, it’s actually the first time he’s won the Test award, and only the second time he’s been named to the Test team of the year, whereas he’s won the ODI award three times now and been named to the ODI team of the year five times.
ICC Men's Cricketer of the Year ✅
— ICC (@ICC) January 22, 2019
ICC Men's Test Cricketer of the Year ✅
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year ✅
Captain of ICC Test Team of the Year ✅
Captain of ICC Men's ODI Team of the Year ✅
Let's hear from the man himself, @imvKohli! #ICCAwards 🏆 pic.twitter.com/3M2pxyC44n
Kohli’s recent Test form, and his proclamations regarding Test cricket, are signs of someone deeply in love with the game’s oldest and longest format. He calls it “the most beautiful format” and recently said he wanted India to become a “superpower” in Test cricket.
And that makes this award hugely significant.
As captain and best player of the team representing cricket’s largest audience, and most powerful board, Kohli is in a uniquely influential position. Test cricket seems forever stuck in a cycle of fighting for relevance, being declared as a dying format, and reviving itself. The money is in T20 leagues, and the shortest format is also the most viewer-friendly and thus the one easiest to use to attract new fans.
But Kohli’s love of Test cricket has been shining through over the last few years. He called it beautiful in an interview last year, a sentiment he’s expressed often. The India captain understands the value of achievements in Test cricket, and passes that philosophy down to his country’s next generation.
It’s not just that players like Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah, who like Kohli started off being viewed as limited-overs specialists, have begun making their name in Test cricket. It’s more that despite the glamour of the shorter formats, and their own suitability for ODI and T20 cricket, they are part of a generation that has a fierce desire to succeed in Tests. Pant has been named ICC’s Emerging Player of the Year purely on the back of Test form. Both players made the Test team of the year in their debut years.
Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah are the only players to feature in both the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year
— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) January 22, 2019
It’s hard not to see Kohli’s influence there. As a star performer of the format, he’s setting an example that the budding cricketers looking up to him now will want to follow. As captain, he’s instilling that desire in his team. India’s next captain will have spent the formative years of his career taking lessons from Kohli on the importance of Test cricket, and have a similar desire to succeed.
As a statesman of the game, his words carry weight all across India, with their billion-strong contingent of fans and their board, and ultimately, that message spreads throughout the cricket world.
And perhaps Kohli’s nature as a rabble-rouser on the pitch even helps Test cricket’s cause. If he’s getting under everyone’s skin, everyone will want to beat him that much more, adding spice, drama, and entertainment to the Test series he plays.
Virat #Kohli is striving for a long spell of Test cricket domination with his #India side 🏏https://t.co/x2opQtdzKN
— Sport360° (@Sport360) January 16, 2019
Where Kohli ends up among the greats as a Test batsman is almost immaterial. With 25 centuries and 6613 runs, and at 30 at least three to four years left at his peak, if not more, he should cross the 10,000-run threshold. If he ends up matching Sachin Tendulkar’s longevity and plays until his late 30s or even 40, the India great’s overall records of 51 centuries and 15,921 runs are within reach, just about.
At the very least, his form should allow him to add to his awards collection.
There are other peaks to scale, of course. 2021 will see away series against England and South Africa, a chance to avenge 2018’s losses in those two countries. He’s well on his way to becoming the greatest ODI batsman – indeed, some are saying he already has. And there are conceivably two more World Cups where he’ll be captain, one this year in England and one in 2023 on home turf.
But with his love for Test cricket translating into team and individual success, he’s already creating a legacy that goes beyond mere records and trophies.
