Virat Kohli’s real ‘test’ begins now.

First of all, heartiest congratulations to Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma for their marriage.
Second of all, a very Happy New Year to everybody!

What is so uncharacteristic about Mr. Virat Kohli? The irony in the fact that a man who doesn’t shy away from the spotlight chose to marry away from it? Or his perpetual aggression on the field? Or his irresistible appetite for runs and victories? Or is it his uncanny ability to step up to the occasion time and again? Virat’s phenomenal rise to his current stature is no mere fluke. If anything, it has been a well planned and even well executed process of meticulously placed elements like hard word, grit, determination and aggression.

“It’s easy to reach the top, but it’s hard to stay there.” In the sport of weightlifting, lifting the weight is the easy part. Holding it in the air for long is the most difficult part. Virat Kohli stands at similar crossroads of his career. If you were to do a comparison in contrast between the beginning of M S Dhoni’s captaincy career and the beginning of Virat Kohli’s captaincy career, you’d end up finding more similarities than differences. I believe both of them started their respective captaincy careers with a cushion under their head built by the pervious captain. If it was Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble who had already formed the core group of the team for M S Dhoni, it was M S Dhoni himself who single-handedly formed a solid team for Virat Kohli to carry forward. Much like M S Dhoni, who had a pretty long and fruitful home season when his captaincy stint began (with a couple of tours to Srilanka and West Indies here and there), Virat Kohli, too, basked in the sunshine that was the home season – which India dominated for a good 18 months or so.

Since the beginning of the ‘grand 2016 home season’ on 22nd September, Virat Kohli’s men have played 16 TESTS, 16 ODIs at 8 T20Is at home. Stuffed between these matches was IPL 10, Champions Trophy and a full tour to Srilanka. Such was India’s domination on other sides, that throughout the home season of 40 international matches, they lost only 9 matches (1 TEST, 5 ODIs and 3 T20Is). Despite that fact, I feel it is safe to say that the start to Kohli’s captaincy career across all 3 formats is a solid one. After all, you always sharpen your knives at home, not when you are away.

With that being said, Virat Kohli’s personal form has been nothing short of flawless. He has scored runs in Tests, ODIs and T20Is. He scored runs in England for the Champions Trophy and in Srilanka as well. He scored runs while batting first, second, third or fourth. He scored runs when India won, or when India lost. He scored runs against NewZealand, Australia, England, Bangladesh and Srilanka. He scored runs on turners, flat tracks and green tops. Coming to numbers, since 22nd September 2016, Virat has scored 4140 runs across formats at an impressive average of 73.92. The severity of this achievement can be better highlighted by the fact that the 2nd on that list is David Warner with only 2666 runs. Kohli has played most matches, batted in most innings, faced the most number of balls, remained not out the most number of times, hit the most fours, struck the most centuries and has the highest average. All this despite missing out on the limited over leg against Srilanka at home.

Another aspect about the way Virat Kohli conducts himself is his now-controlled-aggression. Fortunately for him and India, he seems to translate this aggression into victories, runs and whatnot! Quite a transformation for a guy who showed his middle finger to an Australian fan for some reason. I guess it’s all about using your negativities for greater benefit. His like for aggressive approach towards the game is pretty evident in the way he cherishes responsibility and thrives under it like a mushroom on a food source. As captain of team India he averages 67.19 across formats as against the 49.64 when he wasn’t the captain. His captaincy record is nothing impressive – from 85 international matches that he’s captained, he has won 59, losing only 16, drawing 9 and 1 being a no result. Not surprisingly enough, his captaincy record away from home has been impressive so far, “so far” being the important phrase here.

This background puts me on a very safe pedestal to say that the real ‘test’ of Virat Kohli begins from January 5, 2018. If the FTP of ICC is to be believed and followed, till February 2020, India will play more matches abroad than in India. Note that this doesn’t include the Asia Cup, World Cup in 2019 nor the T20 World Cup in 2020.

Now, if you haven’t already noticed the pattern, it is pretty clear. This is just as similar to when the home season at the beginning of Dhoni’s captaincy career ended. And the coincidence is that Dhoni’s ‘test’ began with a tour to South Africa. Let’s digest that. While for Dhoni, the tour to South Africa was followed by an eventually successful World Cup, for Virat Kohli, the tour to South Africa will be followed by the Asia Cup. Following that, it’s the same – IPL, then a tour to England, come back home for a short series and then to Australia and NewZealand. This is where the real challenge lies – to invade the backyards of each of these teams, which is a very daunting task.

Virat Kohli, though, has at his disposal which not many Indian captains can say they had. He has a cavalry of fast-bowlers, each different in his trade and each in the best form of their lives. And having to travel to 3 different continents, each of which has its own challenges of fast bowling, Kohli stands a good chance to do better than his predecessor. Cheteshwar Pujara says that this team has the potential to become the greatest Indian Test team ever. I mean they can try, but unless you produce openers of the quality of Sehwag and Gambhir, a number 3 like Rahul Dravid, a number 4 like Sachin Tendulkar (well…..), a number 5 like VVS Laxman (again, well….) and a number 6 like Sourav Ganguly, you don’t stand a chance to become the greatest Indian Test team ever.

Though Virat Kohli has the opportunity to lead a strong contingent, the most important thing he has to make sure to strike the right combination in the playing XI. And to achieve that, the first thing he will have to let go off is the age-old Indian policy of playing 2 regular spinners, even in overseas conditions. For the first time since Kapil Dev, India has a genuine fast-bowling All-Rounder who has not only shown signs of promise but has also delivered. Hardik Pandya, ladies and gentlemen, gives Kohli the luxury of going with an extra batsman and it rules out any complacency from the team and fans alike, about the lack of a genuine All-Rounder.

In a horror movie, just when you feel the ghost has gone for good, it pops back up and sends shivers down your spine. Similarly, the biggest mistake that Virat Kohli could ever make is thinking that the hard yards have been covered. Although it is unlikely of him to that, it would be very fatal to all the stakeholders of Indian Cricket if he does end up doing that. There are several scenarios which are yet to occur in the timeline of Kohli. The first scenario that comes to mind is the retirement of M S Dhoni. When M S Dhoni hangs up his boots and gloves, it will be the single most difficult job for the whole of India to replace him. Let’s face it – what he does and in the way he does, no one can even come close to replicating it.

Apart from steering the ship overseas, apart from putting coal in the fire and apart from adjusting the sails of ship, Virat Kohli will have to be very futuristic in his approach. He will have to groom a young captain so that India experiences a smooth transition period like we did from Dhoni to Kohli. Meanwhile, he will also have to build a futuristic team with youngsters who will take India forward for the next 10 years. Add to all this the fact that now the BCCI has left little to no room for complacency by assuring the management of ample rest time, preparation time for tours, short tours and hefty payment. The stakes have never been higher with more and more fans pouring in to watch cricket and the emotional value to each game increasing as well. Considering all these factors, Virat Kohli will have this added responsibility falling on his shoulders, something which wasn’t a thing, say 6 years ago.

If we’re talking about Indian Cricket, how can we forget about IPL! The upcoming season of IPL poses more challenges than it seems on the surface. In all likelihood, RCB will retain Virat Kohli and A B de Villiers. Apart from them, the squad will be relatively new, with fresh faces. RCB also notices a change in management, with Ashish Nehra and Gary Kirsten joining in. The challenges of an IPL captain are distinct than that of a National captain. Bangalore has never won an IPL, which adds that added pressure from the fans whose expectations never fall. When RCB enters the eleventh season, they will carry the baggage of the failure in the tenth season, which makes it all the more difficult for the captain to enable his team to bounce back. But, Kohli can take solace from the fact that most of his team will be comprised of fresh faces who didn’t experience the failure with him last year.

Kohli has the task of leading 4 teams, delivering with the bat and captaincy in each match and a string of tours coming up. For a man who likes challenges and embraces them, here’s plenty. The only thing he has to do is keep one eye on the present and one eye on the future.

I’ll leave you with an observation – in the 2014-2015 tour to Australia, Virat Kohli captained India for the first time in the 1st Test; Dhoni was injured. He scored 115 and 141 in the 2 innings of the match. Dhoni came back to captain in the 2nd and 3rd Test, in which Kohli scored 19, 1, 169 and 54 respectively; 13 less than his scores from the 1st Test. M S Dhoni retired from Test cricket after the 3rd Test and Virat Kohli was handed full-time responsibility of captaining the Indian Test team. In the 4th Test, he struck 147 and 46 to deny Australia a 3-0 win in the series. What I see from this is that Kohli got hooked onto captaincy from the 1st Test, deliberately didn’t perform well in 2nd and 3rd Tests, made Dhoni retire and then score again in the 4th Test. He made his intentions clear. Just kidding. Things happened the way they did for a whole different reason. But, all in good time!