Virat Kohli will improve:
Test cricket remains the ultimate showpiece of the sport. Despite the allure of the one day game and the various T20 competitions around the world, a game spread over five days between two evenly matched teams remains the most intriguing and competitive stage for the best from around the world to show their ability.
England dumped Virat Kohli on the floor on India’s Test leg of their tour of England. He has too much talent to stay down there for long, though…
It would be too easy to suggest that following a series of failures, such as the one he has just endured, that Virat Kohli is not suited to the Test Match arena. The supremely gifted Indian batsman has only managed to score 134 runs in 10 Test innings during the series against England which, for a player of his talent, makes very disappointing reading but there is certainly room for optimism with regards to his future.
His technical faults which have been exposed time and again by James Anderson in recent weeks have been the main focus of the analysts. The fact that his bat is always pushing against the ball in seaming conditions has clearly affected his game but there have been brief glimpses of adjustments he has made to correct his errors. However, when a good batsman is as out of form as Kohli, playing against the moving ball, in bowler friendly conditions, can make scoring runs seem next to impossible.
When we see him playing in the IPL or in one day games there is a way he carries himself that separates him from others around him, a swagger, if you will. Seeing him walking out to bat at Lord’s a few weeks ago he looked a far cry from the player we witness in the shorter form of the game.
There is no doubt that he has been desperate to succeed on this tour of England. Despite seemingly being around for many years now he remains something of a novice at Test level. He had only played in 24 games before this tour began and only made his debut three years ago. When you consider that he made his one day debut in 2008 it certainly highlights his lack of experience in the longer format for India.
One of the huge problems India have been facing for many years was how to replace the likes of Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar. The sheer weight of runs they scored carried a nation’s hopes for many years. With the emergence of Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay it seemed, certainly after the Lord’s Test, that perhaps they had found the potential to succeed the greats that had gone before.
However, in prolonging several of the former’s careers it has led to stagnation and halting of the younger players’ progress. It is clear that Kohli’s ability was identified at any early stage and his natural progression in any other country would have been to play for the one day side and then for the full Test team a year or so later. It is not as if Kohli has been anything short of sensational in the shorter form of the game where he averages 52.16 from 134 ODIs including 19 centuries.
What Virat has missed in his formative years of the game is the ability to build long innings without restrictions. He is a masterful finisher in the ODI format and that level of cricketing brain can surely be transferred into manipulating situations in Test cricket. He has struggled in England because he has been unable to play himself in and get through Anderson and Stuart Broad’s spells to let him attack the weaker bowlers.
His major technical fault during this series has been his handling of balls bowled outside off stump where Anderson has continually bowled that fourth stump line and nibbled the ball both ways. Having grown up and built his game on tracks that require immense wrist work and timing to manoeuvre the ball he has struggled in English conditions as a result. The game here requires a batsman to play straight and show the makers name when attacking and defending. It has been a huge struggle for Kohli to adapt but he is not the first and will certainly not be the last.
The great Kumar Sangakkara, who has been scoring Test match runs for fun over the last few seasons, struggled when he initially played in England. However, what he did was to come back and play as much cricket in this country as he could to ensure he developed that side of his game. Even this summer he arrived a month or so before his Sri Lankan teammates by arranging a stint at Durham where he adjusted to the demands of the moving ball.
A batsman playing in England needs to know how and when to play the ball, how to watch the ball incredibly closely to aid picking up the swinging ball and finally to fundamentally play straight. All of these appear to be basic instructions but when facing Anderson bowling at 85mph with the ball moving both ways you need a sound technique and a strong mind.
There is no doubt that Kohli has failed to live up to his superstar billing in this summer’s series. However, it would be foolish to back against one who is clearly as gifted and talented as he is. There is certainly an argument to suggest that he doesn’t have to enjoy Test match success to cement his reputation in India but that theory seems a little premature.
With a home Test series against the West Indies followed by a gruelling tour of Australia immediately afterwards, Kohli will be playing a great deal of Test cricket in the coming months. He has the stage to prove his ability and it is now that he needs to improve and become the player he has the potential to be.
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