N. Janardhan
To critically analyse a renowned figure is often dangerous, but it is worth the risk. In the melodramatic analysis of superstars, some realistic dynamics are often unheeded, even if they matter. The truth is not black or white. It is most often grey. To decode the grey, one needs to be both self-critical and critically analyse others too. Analysing a sports icon, with 274 million followers on Instagram, is a privilege. Only 12 other people in the world have more followers than Indian cricketer Virat Kohli. Among these, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the only sportspeople.
Packing meat around the bones of this cricket genius, which is well-documented, is unnecessary, but it is an essential foundation to soften the censure that follows. He has been wearing the India jersey since 2008 – first in the 50-over format (14,000-plus runs, with 50 centuries), then in the T20 format (4,000-plus runs, with one ton) and finally when he made his Test debut in 2011 till his retirement in 2025 (9,000-plus runs, 31 centuries).
Even if the captain is only as good as the team, he is also India’s most successful Test captain – with 40 wins in 68 matches. However, for someone who waxed eloquent about his passion for Test cricket, not breaching the 10,000-run mark explains his struggle in this format, with only four centuries in the last five years.
A reason for this failure could be that the genesis of the genius on the offside also proved to be his nemesis. While he thrived on his offside play during his dominating years, he was out at least once in all the five Tests in his last series in Australia to balls bowled on the sixth or seventh stump. This was a pattern that he failed to address effectively in his mind and in the middle for years.
Whether he could not correct his technique or conquer his mind is unclear. But the common phrase – form is temporary, class is permanent – did not apply after a while to a great who struggled for years and failed to restore and retain his greatness.
Kohli was known for revolutionising Indian Test cricket with his aura, swagger, fitness, performance, and passion. True, but he very often overdid it. There is always a thin line between aura and arrogance. At his peak, the aura masked his arrogance. At his lows, there was no aura to hide his faults. Though he was a mellowed-down version of himself in the last few years, his poor form did not help his cause much.
Like Indian politicians, the timing of the retirement of some of our great cricketers makes for sad commentary. Along with Kapil Dev, Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Kohli also did not know when to quit – with his head high. He should have retired a year into his poor form. In the end, he became more a survivor than a stunner.
It is this confusion and the attempt to address it that perhaps took him on his spiritual journey. This may have also forced him to find solace in his past and retire, rather than strive to remain competitive and achieve greater glory in the present and future. It was finally a combination of lack of “mental clarity” and loss of form, which could have led him to quit Tests. In the end, his greatest strength – determination and quest for perfection – that took him to the pinnacle brought him to his nadir.
Kohli’s true character was reflected not just in the middle while wielding his bat. It was mirrored when he was just or totally off it too. He is still the most aggressive Indian cricketer, perhaps even in the world. But his aggression is excessive, sometimes beyond the civil, almost warlike. While it was great that he always matched fire with fire, specially against the fiery Aussies, it was often needless against the minnows.
We may call it character, but it was also characterless at another level.
When he liked someone, he overdid it, as is his fondness for Ravi Shastri and Dhoni. And when he disliked someone, he overdid it too, as is the case with Anil Kumble, who is no less a cricketing hero than Kohli. Though subdued, Kumble was perhaps a cricketer of greater character and discipline. Not respecting a former captain and coach and shutting down all communication with him while on duty in Australia, forcing Kumble to resign in 2017, remains one of Indian cricket’s worst moments.
Kumble’s less flamboyant and ‘expired’ value was no match for Kohli’s then extravagant fame and tantrums.
There are other examples of such inconsistencies. Some insiders, including his IPL former coach Ray Jennings, have pointed out that he was a “loner” and difficult person in the dressing room. Less communicative with other players than most captains, less helpful to youngsters than many seniors and less social with the rest of the teammates, with his behaviour almost “bordering on autocracy”. For a person, who was so full of energy on the field, he was such a different person where ‘energy’ mattered just as much.
Another episode involved him shouting absurdities into the stump mic in the Cape Town Test in 2022. When the chips were down for India, he pitifully accused the South African TV broadcaster of ‘siding’ with the home team. This demonstrated the limits that he would go to rub someone on the wrong side. He played strange mind games, often games in his own mind that had nothing to do with the game itself.
The last example is from the final days of his Test career. After India got walloped 1-4 in Australia and Rohit Sharma’s captaincy and future were being scrutinised, he unbelievably threw his hat in the ring, which was not entertained, leading to his retirement announcement. This was confirmed by none other than Shastri.
Kohli had already been ‘stripped’ of his captaincy once before, from the One-Day format, after a spat with Saurav Ganguly in 2021. Thanks partly to Rahul Dravid, who had the intellectual mindset to deal with a star, Kohli stayed in the Test team thereafter, without captaincy and without scoring a hundred for about three years.
His presence in the Test team as a superhero surviving on past glory had to end sooner than later, unless he would have been able to defeat his demons and come back stronger. But his proposition that he would continue to play only as a Captain was the last straw in the camel’s back.
Brand Indian Cricket is now bigger than Brand Kohli or other stars. Kohli certainly contributed to that brand, but he also helped himself become a brand, one which he overmilked in the last years of his Test career. As he lives more in the UK, whatever the reasons – personal or for privacy – after gaining a name and fame in India, it remains to be seen what he does to the brands he endorses, including his own, during the remainder of his One-Day career. While his millions of ardent fans would wish him success, they would also be wishing that he does not prolong the agony if he fails!