Amid an unexpectedly exhilarating test series, notwithstanding the current score-line that tends to suggest otherwise, Indian cricket
has indeed witnessed the emergence of a brand new facet of combative leadership
in form of its new age hero, Virat Kohli. Arguably the most promising young
cricketer of the present generation, Virat, armed with a magnetic persona, an on-your-face attitude and a no-nonsense approach has managed to bring in this refreshing and much needed ruthlessness into the
Indian side, that had hitherto humiliatingly suffered in the hands of its more aggressive
oppositions time and again, on almost all overseas tours, despite possessing better skill-sets and the best of talents.
At the start of the series when most experts had predicted
another 4-0 white-wash, if today we stand at
0-2 (that so easily could have read 1-1 or even 2-0 in our favor with a little
bit of luck), a super-aggressive Virat Kohli has a lot to do with it.
Dhoni's retirement under mysterious circumstances, might have taken the focus
temporarily away from this Delhi lad, ever so slightly, but there are enough
experts out there, busy bombarding a flurry of advices upon him, justifying why
his aggression could lead to his eventual down fall, so he should mellow
down as soon and as much as possible in order to keep succeeding at this level.
 |
| Virat Down Under |
Sanjay Manjrekar wants him to let his bat do all the talking as
he believes only skills win matches and not aggression. Sanjay likes Pujara’s
response more when greeted with sledging. That is, just ignore and go about the job
on hand. Sunil Gavaskar repeatedly keeps mocking at Virat’s statement that India
would go after whatever target is set. Sarda Ugra reminds Kohli of what Sachin
had once said, “Cricket is played not with passion, but with awareness!”
(Though I think the choice of words in her article ‘passion’ for ‘josh’ & ‘awareness’ for ‘hosh’ don’t completely do justice to
what she meant to convey). Harsha Bhogle too, talking of attitude, prefers
the good boy Pujara more than the spoilt brat Kohli. For him cricket is
literally the age old gentle man’s game with no room for temper. If the
opposition plays the aggressor, good luck to them, we would just smile and get
on with our job, however ridiculous it appears. Pretty similar thoughts to Sanjay.
Ignoring all these uproars though, Virat meanwhile has sledged,
led, battled and gloriously batted his way past records after records, that were earlier
associated with all-time greats around the world. And the good news is, he has done so without making the slightest alteration in his approach.
At Adelaide, it was heartening to see his refreshing approach. The thought
of going after a target in excess of 300 on a fifth day pitch would have
crossed no other Indian captain’s mind, but Virat is different. He demonstrated that
he doesn't mind risk losing a game in order to achieve victory. Not only did he ask
his team to go full blooded for the win, he himself led from front by smashing a hugely
entertaining yet responsible hundred and almost managed to cross the line for his side. Here
is someone who not only talks about ruthlessness, but also walks the talk.
 |
| That verbal duel |
Now then, why are these experts so much averse to Virat’s approach,
despite of acknowledging the fact that he is our best bet to take us to that
thus far elusive overseas success? I believe, the answer lies in our mind-set.
No offence to anyone, but we Indians are obsessed with this typical modest,
soft spoken, genial understated mannerism for ages. This has got a lot to do
with the success of gentlemen cricketers like Sachin, Dravid and Laxman over
the past couple of decades. We have been so overwhelmed by these cricketers
that we won’t approve of any other approach which we haven’t seen these players
adopt.
Over the years, while we’ve taken great pleasure in enjoying a
fiery spell of a Wasim or a Shoalb or a McGrath or the swagger of the great Viv
Richards, notwithstanding the stuffs that was not entirely skills, we have
never come in terms with a similar approach from an Indian.
But that is past. And what we see in Virat is the present India.
Gone are the days when a Sachin would just nod to a mouthful from a McGrath.
Today’s generation would settle the score there itself.
Coming back to Kohli, he is a naturally passionate guy who gets
even more switched on when confronted with verbal duels. That's working for
him. Why try and change it? He has fortunately found some support in Ravi
Shastri, the team director, who is willing to back Kohli's natural instinct. Sourav
Ganguly, Dean Jones and Viv Richards too have all endorsed his approach.
Why can’t we just leave him alone?
No comments:
Post a Comment