Is Virat Kohli a great one-day international captain? Just take a moment. Pause before reading further, and think. What do you really believe?
Is it true that there seems to be a shade of doubt, a lingering confusion... an unexplainable hesitation, when it comes to resolving this issue?
Reuters
If your answer is yes, congratulations. You may have just handed Kohli his biggest motivation to do well in the World Cup in England. Kohli, it is time to remember, is adept at the art of overhauling himself when faced with criticism. Like most Delhi cricketers, he thrives best in a mental combat zone. Give him a target to hit out at, and he will raise his game.
He did it in 2012, after a particularly poor IPL led to criticism of his lifestyle. He woke up one morning, took a look in the mirror, and told himself, ¡°You can¡¯t look like this if you want to be a professional cricketer.¡±
AP
Out went the long nights, in came the missionary zeal. Kohli changed everything about himself: his approach to life and the game, the way he trained, what he ate, when he ate it.
In transforming himself into a batting beacon who defines his era, Kohli became the king of self-denial. There are no cheat days in his life. He is good at pulling himself up by the bootstraps to deliver, time and time again.
He did it again in 2015, adding a more punishing training regime to raise the stakes. In between, he overhauled his technique after a poor outing in England, deciding to stand a foot outside his crease in Australia to counter poor form and throw the bowler off his length.
AFP
Every move was well thought out and successful, hard on himself but a harder slap on the face of an invisible enemy.
These changes came when he had already been part of a World Cup-winning team back in 2011. When he wasn¡¯t yet the lead actor in his own movie, and hadn¡¯t even discovered iron discipline. Three years before that, he led his team to victory in the Under-19 World Cup.
If he had stopped then, there would still be a story to write, but Kohli decided he didn¡¯t want that story to be written. Not for nothing is he the most improved cricketer in the world over the past decade.
AP
That makes this World Cup the perfect time to shape a legacy, especially with negativity swirling around his tactical abilities and handling of personnel as leader. We know that like Tendulkar, Kohli is capable of superhuman feats with the bat to shore up his team in big tournaments. However, just how hungry is he to lead well in the World Cup?
Kohli may be forgiven for wondering what the fuss is about. Statistics reveal only his supremacy: at 73.88%, Kohli¡¯s success per cent is the highest among Indian captains who have led in more than 10 ODIs. He has led India to victory in 31 of 42 games overseas.