Virat Kohli’s ‘unbelievable’ English run demonstrates the power of self-belief and grit

Gone are the days when the technique was considered everything in Test cricket. The qualities like tolerance, patience, and technical soundness made the recipe for success for a batsman in Test cricket.

Then entered Virender Sehwag, who broke these stereotypes. He mastered the knack of combining speed and the hunger to score runs, irrespective of the conditions and state of the match. He knew how to dismantle the opposition’s bowling attack and not just that, he enforced so much destruction with his bat that forced the bowler to doubt his own ability.

A few years later, the world of cricket witnessed a mere spin bowler, who could bat as well, suddenly become a force to reckon in the longest format of the game – Steven Smith. When he made his Test debut in 2010, his stance and technique became a laughing stock for the commentators and also for a few cricket pundits, but the determined Australian cricketer did not give up.

“I haven’t changed much, I have just learnt to be patient and trust my own game,” World No. 1 Test batsman Smith has said on several occasions.

The factor of self-belief plays a massive role in one’s long run in a respective field, not just cricket.

Fast forwarding to 2014, India toured England for a full-fledged series. The squad had a face that was well-established in the Indian team by then – Virat Kohli – who was expected to do well at any cost.

A subcontinent player is given certain benchmarks like he will only be judged as a successful player if he performed well in the SENA countries – South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia. While Kohli had done his bit in South Africa and in the Oceania countries, England was left unconquered by the Delhi batsman.

The desperation to deliver on the English soil was visible whenever Kohli took the crease against a quality English attack.

Speaking in an interview prior to the 2018 tour of England Kohli revealed, “I had put myself under tremendous pressure that I had to score at any cost in England. When you get desperate, even a failure can make things worse for you. Then, desperation takes a toll on your mental state of mind and what exactly happened to me the last time.

I was stuck to the assumption that I will only be bowled in-swingers, and which is why I was never prepared for out-swingers and hence I kept getting out in the same way.”

India left England at the end of the tour with yet another away loss. But, it was Kohli with bitter memories that would haunt him for a very long time. His average of 13.4 from 10 innings was discussed even four years later when India was preparing to go back to England in July. Even Kohli’s average of 64.89 between 2014 (post-England tour) and June 2018 was not good enough to forget that.

It took Kohli just one innings to turn tables around in England during the opening Test at Edgbaston. Although India lost the match, the lone warrior of the team was the skipper himself, Kohli, who scored his maiden century on English soil.

If one thought he managed to get to the triple figures because of England’s sloppy fielding at the slips, Kohli repeated the same performance two Tests later at Trent Bridge, where the Indian captain scored 97, followed by 103 to put India in a match-winning position.

England sure have been clumsy with their slip catching but here what has made the difference is the way Kohli has capitalised on those lives to build one memorable innings after another.

“On this tour, he has left well and made the bowlers bowl to him. It looks to me as though he has been working on this for some time and come with a clear plan,” one of biggest critics of Indian cricket and former England skipper Michael Vaughan said after Kohli’s Trent Bridge century.

Since the forgettable tour of 2014, Kohli has made vast changes in his game. Now, he plays the ball late, he plays the bat close to his pads with his toes not pointing to covers anymore and that helps him play with soft hands which prevents the ball from reaching the slip fielders on most of the occasions.

Although he was dismissed on 97 in the first innings at Trent Bridge because he poked at the ball, it was one of the best things. He has worked on his technique to ensure that he doesn’t poke often needlessly. It was just hard luck in the third Test that after playing a careful knock, he chose to poke the wrong ball and that denied him a well-deserved century.

Along with a tweak in technique, the factor that has majorly helped Kohli is his self-belief. Similar to Smith, who chose to trust his game and work around a solution to taste success as a Test batsman, Kohli exactly has done that. The 2014 England tour probably will always remain the last-ever time Kohli was desperate to score runs in a country.

Speaking about his recent consistency and success in Test cricket, Kohli explained “I like to keep things simple, strike balance between preparation and match intensity, I don’t over practice, I feel I’m good enough to counter that is thrown at me and I have stuck to this method for a while now.”

The qualities of trusting oneself and having a positive mindset have set Kohli and Smith apart from the remaining Test batsmen of their generation. With Smith serving a year’s ban from international cricket, Kohli has a golden opportunity to take the already set benchmark by the two up another notch.