Greg Chappell was a class act, and he recognised another class act when he saw it. In the plethora of tributes in the media since Virat Kohli's retirement from Test cricket on Tuesday, Chappell's tribute stands out for his assertion that Kohli's impact on Indian cricket is unsurpassed even by that of Sachin Tendulkar.
Chappell wrote:
“Kohli, the incandescent heart of Indian cricket for over a decade, did not just score runs. He redefined expectations, challenged conventions, and symbolised the self-assured, unapologetic India of the 21st century. His departure leaves not only a statistical void but a seismic shift in energy - for there has never been another quite like him.
“His evolution mirrored that of India itself - no longer content to play the supporting act. Confident, global, yet deeply connected to its roots.”
“Yes, Tendulkar was a genius. Yes, Dhoni was a master tactician and an ice-cold finisher. But in the grand reckoning of Indian cricket history, Kohli has been its most influential figure.”
“Why? Because he changed not just results but mindsets.”
“He demanded excellence. He made fast bowling India's weapon. He brought the yo-yo test into the cultural lexicon. He backed his bowlers, he stood up to bullies, and he never played for second place. He wanted Test cricket to
“He was polarising, yes. But so is every revolutionary.”
“He walked with a swagger, often spoke too loudly, always played too hard. And in doing so, he became the icon of an India no longer content to play supporting roles.”
Yet, even Chappell has not zeroed in sharply enough on the one accomplishment that defined the Kohli era in cricket: under him, India became the side to beat in every form of cricket; not just T20 or ODIs but also Test cricket. Most importantly, India became the side to beat not just at home, where it recently lost a series after 12 years, but also in the famous SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) quartet.
Australia's Dominance
In the 1970s and ‘80s, West Indies was the side to beat in the two formats in existence then. Clive Lloyd began the Caribbean reign and King (Viv) Richards kept the title on his head even as India surprised the West Indies in the 1983 ODI World Cup final. But Lloyd had his revenge in the tour to India that followed annihilating India 5-0 in the one-dayers.
Australia took over the mantle from the West Indies in the ‘90s, after Allan Border's young team unexpectedly won the ODI World Cup in 1987. Border's steel was passed on to Steve Waugh, and then Ricky Ponting, as Australia became the team to beat on the back of bowlers like Glenn Mcgrath and Shane Warne and bats like Mathew Hayden and the captains themselves.
One image of Australia's dominance is seared in memory. This was in the contentious 2007-08 series Down Under, in which, as Indian captain Anil Kumble put it, only one side was playing cricket. Australia had won the Test and Hayden and partner were walking away, patting each other on the back and exulting.
When Ishant Sharma Went Chasing After Hayden
Ishant Sharma had made his debut in that series and, as rookies are exhorted to do, went chasing after Hayden to shake his hand. When he finally caught up with Hayden, the big-built opening bat looked back for a brief moment with a look of complete bewilderment as if to say: “Who are you, mate? Aussies are only in competition with ourselves.”
Meanwhile, the path was being cleared for the emergence of Kohli and the domination of Indian cricket, in which the emergence of the Indian Premier League in 2007 has played not a little part. Tendulkar, of course, had emerged as a prodigy in 1989 and was to go on to stamp himself as arguably the greatest bat of all times (bar Don Bradman) and to shoulder Indian cricket for the next 23 years.
'Respectful Submission'
Despite Tendulkar, however, and the emergence of world class bats like Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, as well as match-winning bowlers like Anil Kumble, Indian cricket overseas, as Chappel described it, “bore an air of respectful submission - playing with technical skill, yes, but often with psychological inferiority”.
Through the ‘90s and the first decade of this millennium, Indian cricket slowly developed a spine. It began under Sourav Ganguly, who famously kept Steve Waugh waiting for the toss. Under Rahul Dravid, India went on to win a series in England, only the third ever.
Under the short captaincy of Anil Kumble, India won a Test on the famous Western Australia Cricket Association pitch at Perth, infamous for its high bounce. Under Dhoni, it did rather better in the white ball versions than the red ball but, again, as Chappell best puts it, “Kohli lit the fire. He tore the script and authored a new one, where India was not just competitive abroad but expected to win.”
When India Beat Australia In Australia
Kohli took over as captain from Dhoni in Australia in 2014 and Ravi Shastri became the team coach in 2016. Every international Test cricket season between 2016 and 2019, before COVID disrupted schedules, India began the season as the No. 1 ranked team. Under Kohli's captaincy, India beat Australia in Australia for the first time in 2018-19 and would have beaten England in England too in 2021 had COVID not laid the team low.
India has played in both the World Test Championship finals till now and was on course for the third finals in June till the implosion last year; first the 0-3 whitewash by New Zealand at home and then the 1-3 rout by Australia Down Under. Both results seemed inexplicable then, especially the Australian rout after their devastating loss in the first Test; the simultaneous retirements from Test cricket by Rohit Sharma and Kohli suggest that the writing had begun to appear on the wall last year.
True, the Indian sun did not shine on international cricket with either the severity or the length of the Caribbean and Australian suns in the past, but it was heady for India to be seen as the team most likely to win any cricket tournament they entered in any format.
Rohit Sharma And Kohli
There's another threshold in Indian cricket hidden under the simultaneous retirements of Rohit Sharma and Kohli. The Sharma-Kohli generation is the last generation of Indian cricketers who were nurtured in red-ball cricket, which places a greater emphasis on technique, adaptability, fitness and temperament than white ball cricket. In Kohli's case, there is also that character-defining Ranji match in 2006, in which his father died even as he was not out overnight, and after which he went on to complete a match-winning innings and returned home to light his father's pyre.
IPL hit the Indian shores in 2007 and ever since has become the stage for debutants who go on to excel in all three formats. All the leading cricketers in contention for the side to England, with the exception of KL Rahul and Karun Nair, announced their arrival in the IPL first and then showed the ability to also play Test cricket: think Jasprit Bumrah, Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shresh Iyer, Kuldeep Yadav et al.
Kohli's legacy to them is his unwavering prioritisation of Test cricket as the ultimate test of a cricketer because, as he said in his Instagram retirement announcement, it is in the “silence” and the “slow grind” of Test cricket that you discover the real cricketer in yourself. That, and his manic commitment to fitness.
The Coming England Tour
For the Indian cricket fan, the coming England tour holds the apprehension of a nightmare, without Kohli and Rohit, the likely intermittent presence of aging and injury-prone pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, and an undercooked spin challenge led by the mercurial Kuldeep Yadav. To inspire them, they need to hark back to the Indian team tours to Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21.
For Kohli, the Australia series in 2018-19 came after a disastrous summer in England, where India lost 1-4 but Kohli had a spectacular series with 593 runs and two centuries, demonstrating that he had mastered the swing spectre of Jimmy Anderson that had destroyed him in 2014.
He then led the team to Australia in 2018-19, winning 2-1 in a four-match series. But that team lacked the suspended Steve Smith and David Warner. He led the team again in 2020-21, where India began disastrously at Adelaide and was bowled out for 36. Kohli went back after that Test on patrimonial leave, and Ajinkya Rahane stepped in to captain a side that had been fashioned over the last four years by Kohli and Shastri.
India won that series by triumphing in the last Brisbane Test with a team that had precisely three players from the first Test XI: Rahane, Pujara and Mayank Aggarwal. All others had been injured in a brutal series against a full-strength Australian side, in which the grit of Hanuman Vihari and Ravichandra Ashwin in saving the crucial third Sydney Test is the stuff of legends.
Nobody personified the dash and insouciance of Indian cricket better than Rishabh Pant as he played only as Pant can to win the Brisbane Test.
That's the Kohli-inspired legacy that must envelope this team to England, no matter who is the captain.
((Ajay Kumar is a senior journalist. He is former Managing Editor, Business Standard, and former Executive Editor, The Economic Times.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
