The hierarchy of the Indian team cricket has been redefined in a tumultuous week. Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s sudden retirement from Tests amid great suspense and speculation makes young Virat Kohli the new boss in the middle. Dhoni, of course, will continue to play limited overs cricket and is expected to lead in the T20s, ODIs. But in the power grid of the sport, it is the Test captaincy which is the crowning glory. Kohli now has it by right, and full time.
What he does with it is now the question. Support for him has been widespread. What he does now with the Test captaincy is the question being asked in all quarters. Can he inspire the team to excellence in Test cricket, especially overseas? There has been growing despondency at India’s inability to perform well in Tests abroad. The period since the 2011 World Cup victory has been particularly disappointing and primarily the reason for the disenchantment with Dhoni whose captaincy record otherwise is extraordinary.
Kohli’s dazzling batting in the current series has shown that the responsibility of captaincy may not blunt his edge; in fact may sharpen it further. In his first experience as Test captain in place of the injured Dhoni at Adelaide Kohli’s hit a century in both innings. In the third, his sparkling 169 kept the side in the hunt for victory right till the last day.
Where some of his teammates have floundered, he has blossomed into a player that even opponents admire, however grudgingly. With 499 runs in just three Tests and including three hundreds Kohli has shown that he relishes a challenge, even more so when he has greater responsibility and is under the microscope. His batsmanship has been of the highest quality, full of brilliance strokes and a defiant streak against odds. He has taken the Aussie sledging in stride, added dollops of his own to the drama, but more importantly he has tamed the hostile bowlers in their own backyard.
His bustling ways and in-your-face aggression add a dimension to his cricketing persona which has won him many Indian fans eager to see the team rise to eminence, but has interestingly attracted mixed response from former players. Some argue that Kohli’s temperament could come in his way, both in the middle and in his own dressing room. Effective man-management needs a cool, not volatile head, they say.
Others (like team director Ravi Shastri and Viv Richards) argue that it is this overt show of passion that drives Kohli to perform so well, and in time he will learn to temper his aggression. After a disastrous tour of England, this tour was crucial for Kohli. Failure as a batsman could also have jeopardized his position as the captain-in-waiting. Now it is being asked whether the wait had to be so long.
But getting the top job is not the culmination of a story, rather the start of another, perhaps the most important chapter. And even in his brief career as yet, Kohli will have known that the Indian cricket captaincy, highly privileged and powerful as it may be, can be a crown of thorns. He’s been part of the team for over six years first as an ODI player, then in Tests and has seen how the once seemingly unassailable Dhoni also lost his sheen over the last four years as the team struggled overseas.
And if he does some background research, Kohli will discover that even great players like Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid gave up the job out of frustration, disenchantment or whatever else.
The Test captaincy in my opinion is the second most important job in the country. Unlike the first though, there is no defined tenure. In the fickle environment of Indian cricket, there is enough fame, money and adulation. But there are no guarantees. Best of luck Virat!.
