His cricket was a razor edge killer instinct commitment to aiming beyond boundaries to greatness.
His character was such who descended from the fiery cricketer he was with the bat to a colorful personality who lit up the game with an ever endearing twinkling gleam that radiated Virat Kohli as the most influential figure of the game in this modern age. These two components, one from the other, did set the man apart to illuminating the game that his sudden, abrupt retirement from test cricket culminating in three of India’s greats – Ravichandran Ashwin and skipper Rohit Sharma whose retirement Kohli followed in the space of a few days, has ringed the world bemoaning the the game would be the poorer by the emptiness created by the exit of a colossal genius with the bat who lit up test cricket.
WHIPCORD TIMING
That the knee jerk shocking exit of such a cricketing multi colored giant of the game whose cover drive was a pistol sound whipcord that all Australia marvelled at when on tour in 2018, has triggered profound dismay all round. Many former greats have bern moved to emotional comments including Sachin Tendulkar. From Australians Greg Chappell to Adam Gilchrist and West Indian great Brian Lara, who made a personal appeal to Kohli to change his mind when news broke out of his impending retirement, have lamented that the game has lost a true great who redefined the game. Moving comments have also flowed from teammates Jasprit Bumrah who has stated, “you will be missed in the dressing room” to Mohammed Siraj who has stated, “Will miss you my first captain who showed me the way my super hero.”
Indeed, Kohli who retired at the age of 35 with over 9000 test runs and 30 centuries in a 14 year career, the fourth highest by an Indian. has been hailed as the man who took Indian cricket from the brink of a low overseas record to neck to neck with the heavyweights in the game. He will be best remembered for his towering influence to transforming test cricket to where he believed it belonged as the very soul of cricket by his relentless approach as a run making arist in a modern age the innovative T20 short format bore down on the great old game.
Kohli, who does have one line yet going in the ODI format that he will continue having also quit the T20s last year, has left a lasting legacy, by and large the most influential player of the game for a monumental contribution and an uncanny charisma and wit by which he will be remembered to enriching cricket.
In over 14 years and 123 Tests, Kohli scored 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85, including 30 centuries. He retires as the fourth-highest Indian run-scorer and century-maker in Test cricket.
Kohli leaves a lasting legacy – seven double centuries, the most by an Indian player and the fourth most in Test history. Six of them in an extraordinary 18-month, 33-innings spell from July 2016 to December 2017 – a period in which he was the number one batter in the format.
Kohli captained India in 68 Test matches – the highest by any Indian – and suffered defeat in only 17 of them, translating to a loss rate of just 25 percent.
His captaincy record will endure – a remarkable win percentage of 58.82 percent, making him the most successful Test captain in India’s history with 40 wins and 11 draws with a win percentage of 58.82 as India’s most successful test captain in history
Notably, Kohli also led India to their first-ever Test series victory on Australian soil in the 2018/19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
During Kohli’s captaincy, India also held the No.1 spot on the ICC Test Team Rankings for five straight years from 2016 to 2021, and made it to the final of the first-ever ICC World Test Championship in 2021.
As the song goes, ‘Memories will never fade’ is a sum up epitaph of what Virat Kohli was to test cricket.