KING KOHLI RECLAIMS HIS STAGE

The stunning, match-winning knock against Pakistan was a reminder that India’s best all-format batter retains his sense of occasion...

- Partha.Bhaduri

Sportspersons are performance artists. Their art is created not in seclusion but on the stage, in the harsh glare of the public eye, under immense pressures.

Lesser mortals melt in the glare, their craft and training consumed by the fear of failure. Then there are the precious few who cannot perform without the spotlight.

Enter Virat Kohli, show stealer, king of the stage, owner of the big occasion, who chose to kickstart another phase of his acclaimed career in the cauldron of the MCG on Sunday night, in the heat of a crucial T20 World Cup game against Pakistan.

More than 90,000 people, their nationality notwithstanding, went back feeling privileged to have watched a master at work as he scored a 53-ball 82 not out. India won by 4 wickets.

Once upon a time, the ‘easy-going’ Kohli – in his own eyes, of course – gave way to the lean, mean run-machine which arguably peaked in 2016, the year in which Kohli scored another T20 masterclass which he mentioned on Sunday: another unbeaten 82, that time off 51 balls in a virtual quarterfinal against Australia in Mohali in the 2016 T20 World Cup.

“Till today I have always said Mohali was my best innings, against Australia. They are exactly the same innings, but I think today I will count this one higher because of the magnitude of the game and what the situation was,” Kohi said.

As Covid hit, the crowds vanished. It was as if a part of Kohli went missing. The big runs deserted him. For a consummate showman, playing to empty galleries may have been a bit bizarre. The intensity never wavered but the challenge seemed not to excite him. The crowds returned in due course. The runs did not.