Kohli answers critical questions with timely knock

Questions have been raised over his short-format modus operandi, on whether he merits a place in a tournament of World Cup’s magnitude with that sort of a modus operandi, and whether India – a team in search of a global title since more than a decade and counting – could afford counting on a selection strategy that has ostensibly failed year after year, at least in terms of delivering the silverware. 

Virat Kohli shushed at least two of those concerns with a timely reminder on March 25 night in front of a raucous, capacity crowd at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium against Punjab Kings, when his classy 49-ball 77 fashioned Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s chase to help them open their 2024 tally.

It was by no means a chanceless knock. Kohli was reprieved on what was only the second ball of RCB’s chase when he edged a widish length delivery from Sam Curran only for it to burst through first slip Jonny Bairstow’s hands. It was the second time in two balls Kohli enjoyed the rub of the green, after his maiden delivery – a thick edge – did not travel to the man at short third. The first one fetched him no run, but the second added insult to injury for the Kings as the ball trickled to the thirdman fence, helping him get off the mark with a boundary.

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Every batter is vulnerable at the start of the innings, and a slice of luck is all one needs to get going at times. The first two balls did just that for Kohli. He charged down and drove the next on the up through the covers for four, and then picked another, helping one fine as Curran strayed on his pads to make it a hat-trick of fours. A dot ball later, Kohli obliged a Curran half-volley with a sumptuous extra cover drive to make it a 16-run opening over. Intent? Check. Momentum? Check.

There are few better sights in the world than a Kohli cover drive, there are even fewer when he unfurls it against the class of the likes of Kagiso Rabada. It is a shot he has made a name for and a shot which brings him a lot of the lot of runs he scores day in and day out. The kind of touch he was in, it mattered little he was up against a bowler who had had his number thrice in 24 balls in the tournament before Monday’s rendezvous. So, instead of taking it slow when Rabada tried to test him with an in-between length, Kohli sashayed down the track to deliver another on-the-up extra-cover drive to send the ball faster to the fence than he received it.

Kohli’s run-scoring, especially when he is new to the crease, is primarily built around maneuvering fields, discovering gaps most can’t even sight, let alone piercing with a round, leather object, converting ones into twos and twos into threes with his incomparable running between the wickets. Early on in the innings, he finds the boundaries only as they come. In the T20 format, where cricket’s I and M words (read: intent and momentum) are thrown into every sentence of the discourse, that template may not be the most efficient on most days and therefore, to survive in the ever-changing format, a shift in the guard was needed.

But volleying aggressive boundary sprees against the clueless Punjab Kings did not mean the typical side of his batting was switched off. Kohli ran and ran hard. The starkest aspect of his 49-ball outing, however, remained his proclivity to charge down at the pacers and hit them through the line. He made no exception for his compatriot Arshdeep Singh, whom he dispatched through extra cover and midwicket region with commanding smacks. He took risks, but it was more calculated aggression than reckless adventure.

Kohli struck eight of his 11 fours in toto in the first four overs, consequently scoring 35 off 21 at a strike rate of over 160 by the end of the powerplay. This, after he faced a quiet sixth over from Curran, prior to which he had raced off to 33 off 15. He brought up his half-century off 31 balls, staggeringly his 100th fifty-plus score in T20s, only behind Chris Gayle (110) and David Warner (109) for the record.

That the innings came on an uncharacteristically tacky Bengaluru track only inspires more confidence in Kohli’s ability to adapt. Sanjay Bangar, head of cricket development at Punjab Kings and former RCB head coach, expressed surprise on the tinge of green left on the surface in a mid-RCB-innings chat with the broadcaster while Shikhar Dhawan admitted the pitch playing true only 70% of the time. Kohli himself labelled it a “two-paced” surface. All that made no difference, though.

"Well, I mean you have to [keep adding to your repertoire]. I try to give the team a blazing start, but if wickets fall you have to assess. It wasn't the usual flat pitch. People know I play the cover drive pretty well so they're not going to allow me to hit gaps and with guys like KG [Kagiso Rabada] and Arshdeep [Singh] as well, he's tall. So, I mean, if they're hitting length, you have to create some momentum in the ball. And once you're closer to the ball, you kind of negate the bounce that's going to happen. You meet it earlier. So, I mean, you have to come up with a game plan here and there and try to keep improving your game,” Kohli said after receiving the Player of the Match award.

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The innings was not merely about the ups. The Harpreet Brar-enforced middle-overs slowdown birthed the need to hold an end up, which is a walk in the park for Kohli. He was not deterred by the departures of Faf du Plessis and Cameron Green in the powerplay, but with the field spread out and Brar’s boundary-less four overs accounting for Rajat Patidar and Glenn Maxwell in quick succession, Kohli could not have only been on the offensive. So, he ensured to rotate strike alongside Anuj Rawat, who laboured on his way to a 14-ball 11, struggling to find any momentum.

Kohli was severe on his old RCB teammate Harshal Patel. Having pulled him over deep square for a six and four through mid-off in the 12th over, he chose him again to break the shackles in the 16th over, picking consecutive boundaries. However, the pacer had the last laugh when Kohli sliced him to Brar at deep backward point on the final ball of the same over. At the time, RCB were still 47 adrift of the target, however, Dinesh Karthik and Mahipal Lomror joined forces to avert any mishap.

"In T20 cricket, as I am opening here, I try to give the team a blazing start. But if the wickets fall from the other end, you have to understand the conditions as well. The wicket was not as placid as Bangalore usually is. It was a bit two-paced. And I thought I needed to play correct cricketing shots. Playing across the line was not quite working; I tried a few," Kohli said.

"I was very disappointed I could not finish the game; that ball was in the slot," Kohli said. "But yeah, not a bad start for playing after two months and getting into the tournament.”

Kohli also had a tongue-in-cheek remark for his naysayers. "I know my name is now attached to just promoting the game in different parts of the world when it comes to T20 cricket. But I've still got it, I guess,”.

Well, guessed it right.