Nobody’s perfect: How Virat Kholi is forging his India captaincy

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  • Virat Kohli is seen by many as the man who can guide India to future glory.

    India team director Ravi Shastri tells Ayaz Memon about the differences and similarities between Virat Kohli and predecessor MS Dhoni.

    India’s victory in the second Test in a way marred Kumar Sangakkara’s farewell, but it provided a good insight into the mind, approach and tactics of Virat Kohli as captain.

    Kohli was unmoved by the sentiment of the occasion and over five days was unrelenting in his bid to square the series. When it happened, he received accolades from the Sri Lankan great too.

    “I want to thank Virat (and his team) for playing tough and hard, which is how I’ve always played myself,’’ said Sangakkara, after India’s thumping 278 run win at Colombo.

    This would have come as music to Kohli, who had faced some derision in the media for the “fearless and aggressive’’ approach he had tom-tommed before the series, only to lose the first Test in a stunning second innings collapse at Galle.

    While well-wishers advocated caution, sceptics thought he (and team director Ravi Shastri) had gone bonkers in promoting unfettered aggression, but Kohli was not to be deterred from his conviction that this was what would pay the team dividends.

    FIVE TESTS DOWN FOR CAPTAIN KOHLI

    Mind you, this was only Kohli’s fifth test as captain. But such is the scrutiny on the man, and so huge is the demand from Indian fans of their team and captains, that question marks were already being raised whether he was the right man for the job.

    By the end of the second Test, Kohli stood vindicated and sceptics were beating a retreat. India outplayed their rivals completely. Even if it was still in the sub-continent, this was an ‘overseas’ victory which, given India’s poor track record, was significant.

    There were several crucial contributors in this win – K L Rahul, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Wridhiman Saha – making for a solid team effort. But the central figure, the lodestar, I believe was Kohli.

    His forthright batting in the first innings pulled the side out of a difficult situation after two early wickets had fallen. But it was as captain that he made the vital difference: for his tactics as well as how he managed his players in the dressing room and in the middle.

    The decision to move Rahane to number 3, for instance, was not without rebuke or risk. Kohli was castigated for ‘sacrificing’ Rahane to shield Rohit Sharma. As it happened, both players succeeded, the former in fact coming up with a fantastic second innings hundred that effectively squeezed Sri Lanka out of the game.

    To most observers, Rahane’s knock would have settled the debate over who bats one drop, but in the post-match press conference, Kohli was to confound such logic by saying that the batting order could be shuffled at any time in the future, depending on the pitch and how he saw the situation.

    SHASTRI IMPRESSED

    But more than the reconfiguration of the batting order, it was how Kohli handled his bowlers and fielders that was the more impressive. The bowling changes were astute, the field placing at all times putting pressure on the batsmen, including on the third morning when no Sri Lankan wicket fell in the first session and the game was in the balance.

    This is when Kohli captained marvelously. He never showed signs of defensiveness, and sought instead to clog up the flow of runs with attacking fields. This put pressure on the batsmen and after the break, India’s bowlers precipitated a collapse, Sri Lanka losing seven wickets for just 65 runs and conceding a decisive lead of 87 runs.

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    “He learnt a great deal and very quickly from the defeat at Galle,’’ Ravi Shastri tells Sport360. “The fields he set here were sharper, the lines he asked the bowlers to bowl more probing. He was smarting from the loss in the first Test and wanted to make amends. He was spot on, making hardly a wrong move. He’s coming into his own.’’

    These are flattering words from Shastri, who confesses to be a fan of Kohli’s talent and commitment. “Very few players I have seen have been as focused,’’ he says. “Nobody’s perfect, but he’s extremely determined. And let’s not forget that he is not even 27 yet. He can only become better from here.”

    A DIFFERENT MAN TO DHONI

    Captaincy is not something that Kohli was entirely unprepared for, unlike his predecessor Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He had captained at the under-19 level and also Delhi in the Ranji Trophy and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League, as well as acting as understudy to Dhoni for more than a year.

    But it did come unexpectedly when Dhoni decided to suddenly quit on the tour of Australia last season. The onus was suddenly on Kohli and comparisons with Dhoni, who has been India’s most successful, were inevitable.

    It’s too early to make a fair comparison, but some things come through clearly. As personalities, they are a study in contrast. Dhoni is measured, grounded; Kohli’s passion spills over to the extent that he ha can be volatile.

    Kohli also enjoys being in the public eye where Dhoni was reclusive. He seems to relish the stardom and the attention while his predecessor had made it a fetish to become incommunicado.

    On the field and in interacting with the media, they are poles apart. Kohli is expressive, sometimes overly so – straining at the least to get into a tit-for-tat situation with opponents. Dhoni seemed to have ice water in his veins. The sobriquet Captain Cool for him was not misplaced.

    Where they find common ground as cricketers is in immense self-belief.

    “Dhoni would be unfazed by an opponent or situation. Kohli is like that too,’’ says Shastri, who has seen both closely.

    Dhoni left an indelible mark on Indian cricket and Shastri is confident that Kohli will too.

    “He has a sharp mind, deep ambition, wants to achieve big things, is very communicative and is willing to put in hard hours of toil to take him and the team there. This victory could be the start of something special for Indian cricket.’’

    Such high praise obviously comes loaded with equally high expectations. Kohli has crossed a major hurdle as captain. Now, as he may have seen in the case of Sangakkara this week, he has to build a legacy that can stand the test of time and all kinds of scrutiny.

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