The 71st!

"After the battle, comes the reward"

23rd November, 2019.

Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

Bangladesh’s Al Amin nicked one off Umesh Yadav as India registered their fourth consecutive innings victory - the first ever team to do so in the history of the sport. Fans remember that match for a lot of reasons - 19 wickets by pacers at home; Ishanth, Shami, and Umesh making the ball talk, and India’s first ever Pink ball test. But some people remember that match for a different reason. It was where Virat Kohli’s 70th International ton happened, the last one after which “the century drought” started.

What followed this match was 1019 days of waiting, tantalizing “Ohhhss” and “Aaahhhss”, criticism, and a lot of “If only he hadn't played that shot …”. Just about a month after that elegant hundred, Kohli walked in against West Indies when the scorecard was 30-1 with an impending target of 208 looming over the team. 50 balls later, a beautiful lofted extra cover six sealed it for India, and also took Kohli to his highest T20I score - 94*. Little did the celebrating fans know that it would be the closest he would get to the triple-digit mark for the next 3 odd years.

If his deteriorating form wasn’t enough, a pandemic hitting the world did not make things easier for Kohli to focus. Post the 2019 WC semi-final exit, it has been a rough walk in his shoes. And so was it for his fans. It was painful for the fans to watch him being dismissed for paltry scores, as it was the same man who used to score hundreds for fun. Gone was the time when they counted the hundreds, as they slowly started counting the days since the previous one.

“We also understand we came back to action after a very difficult period and things are obviously still getting better as we speak”.

This was from Kohli’s interview just before India toured Australia in 2020. He was excited to play down under, for it has always brought the best out of him. And the tour started off well, with Kohli tantalizing his fans with consecutive 50s in the ODI leg, but with no triple-digit score. Again, the fans were on the edge of their seats as he blazed out to a 60-ball 85, and just as they thought the drought was over, Andrew Tye sent him back to the pavilion. Yet, the fans never lost hope. A few days later, Kohli entered his favorite ground - The Adelaide Oval for the first test of the series. And this time, it was a run out that denied his hundred as he walked back to a brilliant 74. And then what happened in the second innings went on to become “trauma” for all Indian fans. The number “36/10” tells the whole story.

The same loop started unfolding in every other series. A couple of low scores, a couple of gorgeous fifties, but what remained constant was the void of not scoring a hundred. When all this chaos was crashing around him, a ray of sunshine beamed in his life. Oh, and the joy has a name - Vamika Kohli. The birth of his daughter slowly mended the cracks in his heart left due to all the recent criticism, losses, and pressure. Kohli, the human, healed. But the cricketer in him still was struggling to rise again.

“I've done the job with absolute honesty and left nothing out there. Everything has to come to a halt at some stage and for me as Test captain of India, it is now.”

And just like that, with a message on 15th January 2022, one of the world’s most successful test captains had stepped down after a grueling series defeat on the Proteas’ soil. The fans were left to wonder where this is all going. He had already stepped down from T20I and IPL as a captain and was reportedly “sacked” from ODI captaincy. “Was this rock bottom ? Is this how it all ends ?”. The fans were left hanging by that small thread of hope. But guess what, they held strong. They backed him despite his failures. They cheered for him despite the criticism. And most importantly, they believed in him despite his downward spiral.

“Even in a room full of people who support and love me, I felt alone”

Battling ‘outside the off stump’ deliveries on the field was not as difficult as facing his own internal demons. Just ahead of the much-awaited Asia Cup 2022, Kohli opens up about mental health, his experience with it, and much more. And despite the Asia cup starting on a positive note for him with two fifties, a four-ball duck against SL halted India’s progress to the final. With all hope lost, the fans switched on to watch the dead rubber against an exhausted Afghanistan team.

Who knew it was ‘the D-day’? September 08. The 1020th day. The King walked in as an opener in place of the usual skipper Rohit Sharma. After 6 quiet balls, he flicked one to the leg side to collect the first of his 18 boundaries of the night. Afghanistan's premium new ball spinner, Mujeeb bowled the final over of the powerplay, which went on to go for 15 runs with Kohli breaking the shackles. There was no looking back from then. To take matters into his own hands, the Afg skipper Nabi came into the attack and would have broken the hearts of Indian fans if not for Zadran palming Kohli’s shot over the fence. He also got the final piece needed to finish the puzzle - luck.

Kohli decided to go bonkers in the last five overs, showing his class all around the ground. Be it smashing Rashid over mid-wicket in the 16th over or the flicks off Fareed in the 17th over - it had vintage Kohli written all over it. And then it happened. Fareed banged a short one into the crease, and Kohli swiveled back to smash the ball into the crowd for a six, the one that brought up his maiden international ton in the shortest format. The wait was over. The 71st had come. And in what manner?

But he did not stop there. The fans were in for a treat, especially in the last over as he bludgeoned 16 runs of the first three balls. A beautifully tonked “in the V'' shot followed by a stunningly powerful pull, all capped off with a perfectly timed 'bullet like' drive - each one that brought back glimpses of the man who stacked four hundreds' as an opener in IPL 2016. A sublime 32-ball fifty, followed by a blitzkrieg 29-ball 72, accumulated Kohli’s highest T20I score of 122 at a perfect strike rate of 200.

“At the end of the day you know as an individual where you stand, people will have their opinions but they cannot feel what you are feeling”

Just like he perfectly places his legendary cover drives, ‘The Master Chaser’ also perfectly summed up his thoughts in the post-match interview. He showed the world how setting high standards might be hard, but maintaining them is harder and more pressurizing. He was hit with a plethora of criticism, hatred, and downfalls, but never did he lose focus. His fitness speaks volumes of his passion, and the fact that he has very rarely been out of the team due to injuries in his glorious 14-year career proves the point.

Thank you Virat for showing us what passion looks like.

Thank you Virat for showing us what it means to work hard till we succeed.

Thank you Virat for inspiring us - today, tomorrow and for years to come.

18 is a number. You made it an emotion. More power to whatever lay ahead, and cheers to all the success you have given to us. Good luck, Champ