Virat Kohli: The Heart Of India

As captain of a team, Virat Kohli has proved more than adequate, but his true test will come when he has to be a leader of men. Until such time, though, Indian cricket will make the most of a captain who is not weighed down by additional responsibility, and take as many runs in winning causes as it can possibly get.

- Anand Vasu

There was a time, not longago, when Virat Kohlineeded to be taken underwing. He got lucky in that Yuvraj Singh, one of his buddies, a fellow flamboyant batsman, had ridden the cricketing roller-coaster, enjoying the highs to the hilt and enduring the lows with grace. He was fortunate in that his captain at Royal Challengers Bangalore, Anil Kumble, was as dissimilar from himself as possible, focussing on cricket in the staidest possible manner to the exception of all else. He was serendipitous in that he worshipped the ground Sachin Tendulkar walked on, for his batting, his commitment to being prepared and his considerable achievements, rather than looking elsewhere.

It’s tempting to describe Kohli’s growth as a happy coming together of events, but that would be patently false. It was Samuel Goldwyn, the American film producer of the early 1900s who said: “I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.”

AND, KOHLI EPITOMISES this in a way that can scarcely be improved on. Aside from going from being super-brat to the person who sets the agenda in terms of hard work and fitness, Kohli has learnt that he is in charge of his destiny in a way that is not given to all.

IN HIS FIRST TEST AS CAPTAIN, standing in for Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Adelaide in December 2014, Kohli made an epic 141 as India attempted to chase down 364 in the final innings. This was classic early Kohli, happy to go down in a blaze of glory rather than punch his way to an acceptable draw. When asked about it, Kohli was crystal clear: “I’d rather try to win and lose in the process, than look for a draw.”