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Kohli and the challenges of playing just one format
It doesn’t help that the format is dying and he just isn’t getting enough competitive cricket under his belt
Kolkata: There’s always a first time for everything. And even though Virat Kohli getting an unprecedented consecutive ducks in one-day cricket could have been exempted from this truth of life, here we are, wondering how just might he rally from this setback.
In another world where Kohli was playing all the formats and the IPL, Perth and Adelaide wouldn’t have mattered. In fact, it would have been anything but a tiniest blip on the radar. But the circumstances have changed. And Kohli must find a compelling reason to persuade himself and the world to believe that India need him in the 2027 ODI World Cup.
Which is a challenging task at the outset. Picking one format has been a way of life nowadays, but Kohli as well as Rohit Sharma have picked a dying format to try and stay relevant. There aren’t many one-dayers played anyway, and such are the international calendars structured these days that Kohli might have to wait till after next year’s IPL to hit the peak rush of ODIs scheduled ahead of the next ODI World Cup. But what will he do till then?
A third, inconsequential, ODI is left to be played on Saturday at Sydney where a good score could lift the spirits. It will be followed by a slew of matches against South Africa and New Zealand at home where the conditions would be far from South Africa in the onset of summer. After that, we will have the IPL and he has already retired from other formats. In short, there are very few windows for Kohli to keep polishing his game unless he decides to play domestic or county cricket.
It needs to be pointed out here that Kohli’s case is going to be markedly different from his younger teammates who will continue to play different formats, and hence will have more time to work on their game and bond even if they don’t play enough ODIs.
But so brief and fleeting are going to be the one-day windows that Kohli’s return will always have a ceremonial tinge to it as others make way to wait for their turn. To prepare for a World Cup in this massive shadow won’t be easy. For argument’s sake, Kohli still has age on his side. Factor in his fitness and Kohli will probably outrun everyone in this side. Yet there lingers a hint of doubt.
Exacerbating that is the way Kohli got out in the ODI series so far. The dismissal in Perth — flashing outside off, getting caught at backward point — carries in it shades of the problem he had endured during the Australian summer last year and more infamously, in England in 2014. Kohli solved his issues on his own volition but at 36, it’s difficult to believe that he can do it again when the playing windows have shrunk to just a handful across the year.
That the sharpness and reflexes too have been blunted a bit was evident in the way Kohli was set up for a leg-before dismissal at Adelaide. Xavier Barlett was rightly trying to make Kohli feel for the ball on the fourth and fifth stump — making him gingerly toe the off-stump line — before sneaking in a fuller one that seamed into him. Caught unaware, Kohli’s bat closed in on the ball a tad late. Having played as long as he has, Kohli should have anticipated this plan. And when the team kind of depends on him to navigate difficult bowling phases, these types of errors tend to pull down the entire innings.
It probably hasn’t escaped anyone’s attention that Kohli is a much better chaser (he averages 64) than he is batting first (averages 50) in ODIs. His dismissals thus in two innings where India have been put to bat first could be very much part of a more elaborate plan hatched by Australia. To err is human, but when you choose to stretch your career by picking only one format, you can’t afford to be defined by your past. That onus is solely on him.
Throughout his career, Kohli has always made bold, unselfish choices. He retired from Tests without waiting for a farewell Test. There couldn’t have been a grander sendoff in T20Is, lifting the T20 World Cup against a doughty South African side with a match-winning 76 after prepping for the tournament by opening for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in that year’s IPL.
For the same person to circle back to ODIs like this despite winning the Champions Trophy feels and looks odd, even more so with him failing to score a single run in back-to-back ODIs. Sydney might offer a different outcome. But if it doesn’t, more questions would be raised than answered. And that can’t be good for Kohli, or India.
