Here's How Virat Kohli Is Changing The Way Twenty20 Is Played
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In the end, the IPL trophy again eluded him. But undeniably Virat Kohli was the player of IPL 9. Not because he smashed an astonishing 973 runs in 16 innings at an average of 81.08 and a strike rate of 152.03. But because the 27-year-old RCB skipper created what can be best described as the Virat Kohli school of T20 batting. Without sacrificing aesthetics and grammar, Kohli pushed the frontiers of batsmanship and revolutionised the craft this year.
T20 Hundreds Are No Longer Rare
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In early T20, 30 was the new 50. And 50 became the equivalent to a century. 100s were rarer than a movie without a Helen dance in 1960s Hindi films. Even in a tournament as long as IPL, a batsman was happy to post one century. Expecting anything more was like asking for the impossible.
Kohli has demolished this mindset. In IPL 9, he smashed four centuries ¨C 100 vs Gujarat Lions, 108 not out versus Pune Supergiants, 109 against Gujarat Lions again and 113 versus Kings Xi Punjab. Incredibly, the last knock came in a rain-curtailed 15-over-a-side game. Thanks to Kohli, 100 is no longer a rare T20 landmark.
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Openers Are The New Finishers
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For India, he bats at No. 3 in the game's bonsai version. In the Asia Cup and T20 World this year, the Delhi batter often piloted India to triumph. A signature war cry and leap after the last runs were collected was a regular yet indelible image of those knocks. However, this season for RCB, Kohli has regularly turned out at the top.
But being an opener hasn't caused him to abandon his near-obsessive role of staying undefeated till the end. True, he couldn't close the final. But before that, be it the pursuit of DD's modest 138 (Kohli 54 not out) or KKR's hard target of 183 (Kohli 75 not out) or Pune Rising Supergiants' imposing 191 (Kohli 108 not out), the Delhi batter has made it his job of staying on till the end. Right through the chase, he generally seems to be in control with complete clarity in his mind about the means he would employ to achieve the end.
Simply put, he is doing what finishers in the middle-order used to do. And in doing so, he has taken the opener's job to the next level. That's why Ian Chappell, who always chooses his words with care, called him, "the finisher of all time."
Made The Kohli Formula Of T20 batting
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What's incredible is that Kohli has also created a near fail-safe formula for the game's shortest version. To minimise risk and maximise percentage of success, Kohli seems to be batting on the principle that singles and twos matter as much as fours and sixes. To achieve this objective, he has taken running between the wickets to a new level. And to run hard right through the innings as he does, Kohli¡¯s fitness levels must be close to a world top 10 tennis player. Of course being in prime form, he has also swatted 38 sixes this IPL. But the point is, sixes and fours isn¡¯t what he has based his game on.
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A penchant for batting grammar, a fetish for consistency: AB De Villiers has brought breathtaking improvisations to T20. When in the mood and on song, he is peerless. Last week Kohli called him, the best in the world. Chris Gayle is about fully frontal assault, unapologetic brute power. When in the mood and on song, Gayle brings the ruthlessness of a dictator on the pitch. The thing with Kohli is that he is always in the mood and on song these days.
In 2016, he has given new meaning to the word, consistency, in batting. These are his scores in IPL 9: 75, 79, 33, 80, 100, 14, 52, 108*, 20, 7, 109, 75*, 113, 54* and, believe it or not, 0. In the final again, he scored 54.
As one can see, the centuries didn¡¯t come at the cost of consistency. Kohli has fired seven other scores of 50 or more.
It's Not The Runs, But The Way He's Getting Them
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It is also the manner in which they have come about. After dream run in Asia Cup (which he almost single-handedly won for India) and World T20 (where he was equally consistent), he has kept raising his game. Every time you watch Kohli you feel, he can't improve anymore. And every time you are proved wrong.
What¡¯s amazing, and this has been pointed out time and again, that he achieves all this without making a mockery of the coaching manual. His shots are right out of the textbook. Kohli¡¯s wrists marry art with power. And the arc of his bat always delivers lessons in geometrical precision.
On Sunday, under his leadership, acchhe din almost arrived for RCB. Those aware of the big picture would know, nothing would have been more incredible and ironical than that.