King Kohli's crown slips as India journey down under

There is a famous portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger, painted as part of the Whitehall Mural in the mid1530s.

- HARRY LATHAM-COYLE

By the time of its creation, the Tudor royal was in his forties and already dealing with some of the health issues that would come to riddle his final years, while also overcoming the serious injuries suffered in a jousting accident at Greenwich Palace.

Yet Holbein paints the picture of a potentate in his prime. Henry stands tall and broad, legs spread in a power pose, showing no signs of physical decline. It is a piece of propaganda that has endured even after the destruction of the mural in 1698, a great many copies and cartoons shaping the perception of the ruler across centuries.

Perhaps India’s own ageing monarch requires such a flattering portrayal. Virat Kohli begins this week’s series against Australia as a faded force; a king who once ruled with bravado and brilliance, now seemingly in terminal decline. Statistically, the figures are stark: since the start of 2020, Kohli has averaged 31.68 in Test cricket. While glimpses of his genius are still sighted in white-ball cricket, this is no dip, blip or loss of form, but the sort of sustained slide that is rarely reversed.

His past oeuvre has meant Kohli has dodged more serious questions about his place in the side, but with one of cricket’s biggest series about to begin, a perhaps overdue narrative is starting to stir. “He’s only scored two Test hundreds in the last five years,” former Australia captain Ricky Ponting said on the ICC Review podcast as the two sides prepare to contest the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. “That’s a concern. There wouldn’t be anyone else probably even playing international cricket as a toporder batsman that’s only scored two Test match hundreds in five years.”