Pune: Caught in a chasm between being someone he used to know and being who he wants to be is Virat Kohli.
No one, maybe not even him, knows when or how arguably the greatest batter of this generation got there. All we know is that it cuts a sorry figure.
In the moments he remained suspended in an uncomfortable lunge after being bowled off a low full toss from Mitchell Santner during the second Test in Pune on Friday, you got a sense that he was just not in it. Somewhere in those moments, and he was there for quite a while, it even felt like he wasn’t enjoying it anymore. A retirement then?
Given India’s impending tour of Australia, it would seem unlikely, but a near-36-year-old cannot be in this headspace and play productive cricket. While the pace and bounce of Australia might help him regain touch, the kind which has seen him compile 9035 runs from 117 Tests, it will take some doing to leave behind what has transpired in this Test so far.
Sure, he came into this Test on the back of a nice-looking 70 in Bengaluru, but this was different, possibly even seminal.
Firstly, he looked out of sorts on the field when India were bowling, uncharacteristically missing a horde of regulation gathers inside the 30-yard-circle. Typically, he stared at the ground and made gestures to suggest an uneven surface. On Friday, he had no surface to point at, and no gestures to make, save for ones directed at himself.
Ushered to the crease by the sound of frenzied fans, the man looked determined to change the recent narrative, at least his walk suggested so. He hasn’t scored an international century in over a year, and with India up against a formidable opponent in New Zealand, it was his turn to show the way forward.
Kohli had chosen to make some adjustments: he opened his stance a bit more to take his pads out of the way, and he was stretching farther than he typically does to spinners.
The first eight balls were a neat summation of experience, technique and strategy. In fact, former India skipper Anil Kumble was on commentary at the time speaking of how Kohli’s open stance will work better than Shubman Gill’s closed stance in these conditions.
“I was very surprised because that’s the shot he (Kohli) doesn’t look to play at all,” Kumble told on JioCinema. “When he first came in, he opened up his stance to mainly counter the ball coming back in the way Shubman Gill got out. I thought that was a good approach to playing the left-arm spin. Probably he was a bit late to realise that it was a full toss and wanted to go across which is unlike Virat Kohli. Even if he’s looking to go across, it’s mostly with a straight bat that he looks to play through midwicket but here perhaps went a bit late.”
Kumble disclosed later that he had asked the producers to cue up a side-by-side visual to describe why Gill was trapped leg before wicket in his crease and why Kohli wouldn’t end up making that mistake.
By the time the producers could heed Kumble’s request, Kohli twirled his bat and steadied up for his ninth delivery. As it left Santner’s spindly left arm, Kohli shaped up for a conventional sweep before changing his mind to play the slog sweep.
You’d think he, if anyone, could make these adjustments mid-shot and get away with it. Actually, you think he, of all people, would whip that delivery past mid-on or drive it straight back past the bowler. Hell, maybe even go inside out and audaciously hit it through the mid-off region.
Alas. He chose to slog, and while his bat was already on the upswing, the full toss slid between the large bat-pad gap and slammed into the stumps.
Premeditated aggression or premeditated shot? Either way, Kohli remained in that pose, the sound of timber still ringing in his ears, unsure of what he had done, unsure of how he, of all people, could have gotten out like that.
He looked towards the non-striker with shame more than confusion, snuck a glance at the celebrating Kiwis, then down at the pitch, recreated the shot in anger, and walked towards the pavilion, muttering under his breath while staring at the giant screen.
He must be aware that his record against left-arm spinners in India since the beginning of 2021 has been tragic, but getting out to a full toss from a spinner who averages over 40 with the ball?
"Yeah, maybe just one innings or a couple of innings would have helped,” Kumble said when asked if playing domestic red-ball cricket before this series would have helped him. "Playing in a match situation than the amount of practice that you do certainly is an upper hand for anyone. Maybe if the team management felt that it would have perhaps helped his game to start off against spin.
“But, I don’t think that you can just look at that as one factor for the dismissals he has had especially against spin because I feel when he’s walked in, the pitches have been conducive to the spinners rather than the other way around. I feel over the few years that we have seen him struggle against spin, especially at the start of his innings has been not just about the attacking mindset of a spinner but also the conditions.”
Right, but he had a chance to put Kumble’s postulation to the test on the third day of the Pune Test because the pitch was rather benign when he walked into bat. He capitalised on that and looked a decent hit for 39 deliveries. Until Santner got the ball to slide into Kohli’s pads with him on the back foot.
The umpire reckoned it out, but Kohli thought the ball was drifting past the leg stump and reviewed it. As fate would, unfortunately, have it, the ball was clipping the outside of the leg stump but it was umpire's call, and Kohli had to go.
Only, he didn’t, not for a while at least. He stared in the direction of the umpire and began his slow walk back to the dressing room, all the while muttering under his breath.
When it rains, it pours!
This isn't about Kohli's ability, this is about the worst shot of his career, this extended stretch of mediocrity, and how he seems more and more mortal with every innings that comes his way.
That's perhaps why he has a hint of fear in his eyes.