It is about a week since King Kohli announced his test retirement, almost an eon (yuga) in today’s micro attention spans. While the news might die down, Kohli’s legacy will last for a very long time.
The white color has always been associated with peace, sobriety, calmness, but those who remember our 8thstandard physics will know that if you make a disk comprising the 7 colors of the VIBGYOR (or the rainbow in simple terms), when spun at high speed, it looks white. It takes a personality and an effort (refraction) to showcase the dazzling colors that make up white. This personality was Virat Kohli.
This tribute is for a man who made the mundane mysterious, the staid sexy, the static dynamic, the classical contemporary. It is for a man who showed that test cricket is alive, kicking and lit.
For almost a century since India has been playing tests, it was always about its batsmen. Merchant, Mankad, Sardesai, Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Dravid, Sehwag, Laxman, with a smattering of bowlers thrown in, mostly spinners (Kapil being the exception, but even he is remembered for his 175 not out and not for 9 for 83). Much like the Indian movies where the female cast (sadly) always played a secondary role, the bowlers have always occupied lesser mind share and importance.
While this batting obsession gave us multitudes of records – highest runs, highest centuries, first to 10000, best batting averages, Fab Four, we did not have what mattered. Test series wins in SENA countries.
Credit to Kohli he realized very early that test matches (unlike white ball matches) are won only when you take 20 wickets. In a small step on the pitch but a giant leap for Indian cricket, he morphed the Fab Four into a Fast Four – four pacers who could consistently clock 140 clicks per hour. Instead of stray bullets, Kohli developed a fusillade. While this was abroad, at home – he brought in total cricket. Bat, bowl, field well – dominate every hour, every session, every day, every match, every series. He made the India the team to beat and an Indian tour, the most demanding one for other nations.
This is the legacy he leaves behind – that of sculpting a good team into an invincible one at home, that of transforming poor travelers into formidable ones abroad.
Despite being a demigod of the white ball game, he shone focus on the red ball. Through his constant presence, he gave a format that was struggling for survival, a fresh lease of life.
As a batter, Kohli’s test statistics do not do justice to his caliber. As an Indian test captain, he was the best, by a margin. And, he compares well with the best captains of the last few decades – Ponting, Waugh, Lloyd – that is a statement by itself.
His exit will be a void very difficult to fill. Much like Federer at the Wimbledon, Nadal at the French open, Usain Bolt at the Olympics – the test match arena will be much poorer without Kohli. The white flannels have indeed lost their rainbow.
The world of test cricket will seem less colorful.
