Kohli's kryptonite & sound of silence in Pune

THE chants from the terraces started as soon as Shubman Gill was adjudged leg-before.

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

The fans, most of whom had left their homes at 8.00 AM, were here for this so they didn't want to waste any time. Even as Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal held a mid-pitch discussion around taking DRS, the spectators whipped out their mobile phones, zoomed in 5x or greater and trained their lens on the Indian dugout.

When Gill decided to turn back, the chants were at their loudest. “Kohli, Kohli,” it started. It was to the tune of “Sachin, Sachin,” from many moons ago. Their deity was here and nothing was going to prevent them from catching a glimpse of one of Indian cricket’s biggest stars. To be in the middle of all this was to see devotees being granted an entry inside the sanctum sanctorum.

You are allowed to come in with your slippers but you need your fandom to be on point, keep aside all cynicism and scream till your throat starts to sound broken. The large Pune crowd at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium checked all of those boxes. Most of them were happy to even leave the shade to go to the bottom of the stands to get an Insta-worthy photo of their GOAT. It reached a fever pitch when Kohli took strike against Mitchell Santner, statistically the bowling type Kohli has come to fear a lot of over the last few years.

Slow left arm.