Virat Kohli: The warrior monk retires with a career forged in discipline, defined by dominance

When Rohit Sharma slipped away from Test cricket, you were left with a feeling of quiet sadness, an appreciation for what he brought to the game and a sense of gratitude for what he had done for the team. When Virat Kohli followed suit, the loss was qualitatively different, more visceral, more wrenching, because there may not be another like him for a time to come.

Kohli scored a mountain of runs, forcefully imposing his will on the opposition and dictating the tempo of matches. But, more than the runs he scored, the manner in which he elevated himself above his peers will burn brightly.

To compare anyone to Sachin Tendulkar is an exercise in futility, but the only player who has come close to occupying his space is Kohli. When you picked an Indian playing eleven, in the 1990s and 2000s, you built it around Tendulkar. With Kohli, it was much the same.

Even in the last few years, when Kohli’s returns were much diminished from the heights he hit, and his manner of dismissal outside off stump was becoming something of a recurring joke, Kohli was undroppable. Other players with the same results would have got a tap on the shoulder from the selectors.

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But, you did not do that with Kohli because he was the one player that the opposition feared the most. He did not accumulate runs — and in Indian cricket, there will always be someone who does — he hammered a stake into the heart of the opposition bowling. If you watch Kohli at his best, there are few more pleasing sights. Everything about his batting is about planes of existence. His set up at the crease is immaculate, built on a core strength that came from years of training and a monkish adherence to diet and discipline. His movements were compact and decisive: feet leading the way, arms following, wrists locking, a symphony of action that allowed the bat to trace the best possible arc.

And when bat met ball, the meat of that English willow punched leather with an oomph that let fielders know that they had no chance one the ball went past them. Kohli the leader was man unto himself.

He chopped and changed the playing eleven more than anyone before or after him, defied conventional wisdom and threw out the playbook. And yet, he won 40 of the 68 Tests he was captain of. Statistically, this sort of consistency should not have been a realistic aim. But, Kohli’s method — and it occasionally looked like a kind of madness — was to chase victory even if it meant flirting with defeat. At no point did Kohli consider a draw a useful result.

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For Kohli to leave the game with 9,230 runs to his name — and the 10,000 milestone was there for the taking had he decided to press on — and an average of 46.85 puts him right up there with the best of those who have played. But, more importantly, he laid down a marker that generations to follow must live up to.

Kohli’s attitude to fitness, his transformation from the chubby butter chicken loving teenager to the ultimate professional, is a case study in what can be achieved if you put your mind to it. If Tendulkar was an untouchable paradigm, Kohli was an aspirational real-life hero. A generation of cricketers, especially batsmen, in India, looked like Kohli, walked like Kohli, wore his beard and replicated his tattoos.

But, for a set of youngsters who did not take instruction too well, and did not like being told what to do or how to look, Kohli lived out the manual. If you wanted to give yourself the best chance at succeeding be like Kohli. This was something even rebels without a cause identified with.

That Kohli drove himself and his team, to constant improvement was a given. When he suffered a fruitless tour of England in 2014, Kohli did not hang his head in disappointment. He went back to the drawing board and rewired his game, to the extent that his 2018 visit to England was the harvest of a bumper crop. No matter what the bowlers came up with, harnessing every advantage the conditions offered, Kohli had an answer.

In Australia, a country that Kohli loves almost as much as its sporting populace grudgingly admires him, Kohli was at his best. Pace and bounce may hurry and harry lesser players, but he weaponised them, turning the bowlers’ greatest strengths into their biggest vulnerability.

Kohli will be remembered for his aggression — the cameras simply loved tracking his every animated movement on the field — but he should be celebrated for his relentless pursuit of excellence. No player in recent times has tried harder, and this is the ultimate respect you can give to a great game.