Virat Kohli: Adieu not a surprise, but body blow to Test cricket

I have lived a life that’s full

I have travelled each and every highway

And more, much more than this

I did it my way

~ Frank Sinatra

There is no doubt that at the end of the day, Virat Kohli decided to bring down the curtain on his Test career his way. The classical format of the game just lost one its biggest ambassadors, and the upcoming India-England Test series has certainly lost half its sheen, with and now Kohli out of the frame.

Like all good things, the master batter’s innings had to come to an end sooner rather than later, though it will no doubt open up speculation on whether the powers that be wanted their 'Mission Transition' to be executed this way. It’s a fact that the BCCI top brass were bent on convincing Kohli to take the final call only after the demanding Test series, but he was in no mood to oblige.

Every time Kohli — easily the most influential figure in the game globally over the past decade — has taken a step like this, starting with stepping down as T20 captain, he has used his incredible social media reach to present his side of the story. Interestingly enough, he was conspicuously absent from Instagram in recent times until today, when the country was busy with the aftermath of the India-Pakistan ceasefire, to make Indian cricket fans’ worst fears come true.

The buzz was in the air since last week, and Kohli took to the memorable Frank Sinatra number My Way to describe his journey. Unlike Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s famous usage of the Mukesh song Main pal do pal ka shayar hoon (I'm but a poet for a fleeting moment), Kohli struck a different note in his farewell note and the message was clear — it’s time to go after having lived a full life.   

There is a cliché that it’s always better for a top class sportsperson to retire when people ask ‘why’ rather than ‘why not.’ In Kohli’s case, he must have been the first person to acknowledge that he has not been the same batter in red-ball cricket for the last five years, with his average down to below 50 and just four of his 30 Test centuries coming during this period.

The last tour Down Under must have provided him with another , as he kept being dismissed in the same fashion — trying to play with hard hands at deliveries bowled on fourth and fifth stumps. There is no doubt that Pat Cummins & Co. certainly had his number and but for the somewhat painstaking 100 in the first Test at Perth, the only one which India won, it must have been an unmitigated disaster for him.

A fiercely proud individual, Kohli must have thought enough was enough and the clock had actually begun ticking. The media’s limited access to him these days meant there was no way of reading his mind, though in a podcast with Mayanti Langar for his IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru sometime back, Kohli let his guard down: ‘’Because I got a good score in the first Test, I thought right let’s go. There’s going to be another big series for me. It doesn’t turn out that way. For me, it’s just about the acceptance of okay fine, this is what happened. I’m going to be honest myself. Where do I want to go? What are my energy levels like.’’

It seems that after doing the grind for nearly 15 years with his self-discipline and relentless focus on the game, Kohli now wants to take it a little easy. ‘’It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket. Honestly, I never imagined the journey this format would take me on. It’s tested me, shaped me, and taught me lessons I’ll carry for life,’’ Kohli’s Instagram post read.

‘’There’s something deeply personal about playing in whites. The quiet grind, the long days, the small moments that no one sees but that stay with you forever. As I step away from this format, it’s not easy — but it feels right. I’ve given it everything I had and it’s given me back so much more than I could’ve hoped for.’’

Thank you Virat Kohli. There was never a dull moment with you around!

KOHLI IN TESTS

9,230 runs from 123 Tests; 30 centuries; 31 fifties

Double centuries: 7 (highest by any batter)

Fourth highest Test centurion among Indians: Sachin Tendulkar (51 hundreds), Rahul Dravid (36), Sunil Gavaskar (34); Kohli (30)

Most Test centuries by an Indian captain: 20

Fourth most successful Test captain: Graeme Smith (53 wins), Ricky Ponting (48), Steve Waugh (41); Kohli (40)