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On 20th June 2011, Virat Kohli made his debut in the longest format of the game against the West Indies at Kingston, Jamaica. He had already tasted success when India was crowned as Winners of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in 2008, led by him.
Little did he know that one day, he will turn out to be someone who will dominate all formats of the game. All he did was dream and visualize it. It was just the possibility of his dream coming true which gave his life a purpose.
In December 2014, against the ‘Mighty Australians’ at Adelaide, Virat Kohli was appointed as the Test Captain in absence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was ruled out due to an injury. That is when the whole world saw his hunger to conquer the longest format as he became only the fourth Indian to score a century on his test captaincy debut.
A 115 in the first innings followed by a 141 in the second innings couldn’t help India get over the line. But it just set a template for his own standards and for what we wanted his team to achieve.
That was also backed by the former Head Coach of the team. On the Star Sports show ‘Bold & Brave: The Shastri Way’, Ravi Shastri went on to explain his relationship with Virat Kohli and the similar mindset that one of the greatest ‘Coach-Captain’ duo shared.
He said, “We’re both pretty aggressive, we want to play to win. We realized very quickly that to win you need to take 20 wickets, deciding to play aggressive and fearless cricket. It means at times you would lose games but once you got one across the line, then it’s infectious”.
The statistics prove each and everything that this duo expected out of the Indian Test Team. Under Virat Kohli, they have bowled out the opposition team under 200 runs in 50 Test innings.
He enjoys an incredible win percentage of 59.70, with 40 wins under his name. This makes him India’s most successful Test captain and puts him on Fourth on the list of the most successful Test captains’ in International Cricket.
Rahul Dravid once said, “You don’t win or lose games because of the 11 you select. You win or lose with what those 11 do on the field”. What Kohli ensured was that the playing XI moved ahead together, with the same approach, with the same aggression. That is what separates a leader from a captain.
It’s always a great feeling for an individual player to get his name engraved on The Honors Board wherever he plays, but only if it could show what ‘everyone’ under Virat’s captaincy has done to ensure that the Team emerged victorious. Right from Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul to Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, every player has risen to the occasion to make this side reach great heights.
This is what this Indian team does. They all celebrate together, even if it is the smallest victory, because no one else can understand what it took them to achieve it. Virat Kolhi never shies away from showing his true emotions on the field, does he?
In any overseas tour, you generally do not start as favorites. But these ‘Men in Blue’, donning and shining in whites, have brought that change. Some victories will always remind you of how great this sport is; how great this format is!
This army, led by a King, has proved time and again that currently it’s the best touring side in World Cricket. The recent victories in the SENA countries will be cherished forever. And it just compliments a statement – Test Cricket Won’t Die!
Three different generations have been dominated by the three ‘greatest of all time’ (G.O.A.T) of the game:
1928 to 1948: ‘SIR’ DON BRADMAN
1989 to 2013: ‘GOD’ SACHIN TENDULKAR
2008 to Present: ‘KING’ VIRAT KOHLI
And how lucky are we to witness The Era of King Kohli?
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