‘Game is about committment, not tattoos’

India skipper Virat Kohli has made it on the covers of the August issue of fashion magazine GQ India. In an interview, he talks about his looks made others doubt in his abilities at the start of his

THE GREAT ‘ATLAS’

In the 1930s, Ron Headley, the great West Indian batsman, came to be known as Atlas, so great was the burden he carried on his shoulders. During Tests he played in that decade, Headley scored 26.5 per cent of West Indies’ runs, a lower share than Kohli has scored of India’s away runs so far this year.

By the time Ravichandran Ashwin flashed James Anderson behind, 68 other Indian batsmen had been to the wicket and back, with only that solitary half-century of Pandya’s between them. That is why India have reached 300 just once across seven completed innings in this sequence of games.

Eighty years ago, Headley was simply bereft of batting team-mates with much Test pedigree. The great

India skipper Virat Kohli appeared on the cover of August issue of fashion magazine GQ India. The flamboyant cricketer, who has grown to become one of the style icons for youths, spoke to the magazine in an interview where he talked about how his physical appearances made others doubt in his abilities at the start of his career.

The 29-year- old said he was considered a ‘flash in the pan’ in the beginning.

“(When I started out), I was judged a lot. I would get constant feedback about my appearance. The perception was that a person like me would only be a flash in the pan,” the right-hand batsman said.

The skipper further added the game gives back to the players who remain committed towards it.

“But the truth is if you work hard, the game will give back. The game doesn’t look at tattoos, it looks at commitment,” he said.

THE DHAWAN CYCLE

Little of this pedigree was evident as India began their chase of 194. Four of India’s five wickets fell caught behind; several of those – especially Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane – were aberrant wafts, lacking the meticulous judgment the murky conditions demanded. Worst of all, there was little sign of the lessons from the brutally fought Test series in South Africa – or Kohli’s mesmerising 149 in the first innings – being absorbed. The Dhawan cycle goes like this. He scores gluttonously on Indian pitches, where the lack of seam movement means that he is free to use his timing and power to thrash the ball through the off side.

The runs mean that he demands selection when India next tour a country where opening is less agreeable. Only, when confronted with seam and swing, Dhawan’s game suddenly seems ill-suited to the demands of Test cricket again. So he is dropped – as he was after three miserable Tests in England in 2014, three indifferent ones in Australia in 2014-15, and one poor game in South Africa in January.

Then, when he returns to home climes, Dhawan returns to being supreme– in India’s solitary Test between the series in South Africa and England, he crashed 107 off only 96 balls against Afghanistan. The upshot was that Dhawan could hardly be left out again, even after he mustered a pair against Essex in India’s lone warm-up match. Dhawan’s fate embodies India’s challenge in converting their phenomenal home form into a team who thrive away, and so can not merely be world No 1 in a flawed age of Test cricket but a team whose greatness cannot be denied. In some ways the intensification of home advantage is bizarre – it belies that away teams have better hotels and more comfortable travel than ever before. They can study conditions and learn from foreign coaches. And, perhaps most importantly, the Decision Review System means that away teams are not at the whim of umpiring decisions made under the pressure of a baying home crowd.

Yet, for away teams, all of these welcome developments have been insignificant set against the one major shift in Test cricket that has favoured home teams: the relentless schedule. And so India’s preparation for this quest to win a five-match Test series away from home for the first time since 1971 amounted to a puny three-day game against Essex, who were resting their most potent bowlers. For a batsman as brilliant as Kohli this was a trivial inconvenience. For the rest of the top order, it looked like a roadblock.

And if they are to withstand the vicissitudes of a five-match series in England, India will need much more than their incisive bowling attack and Kohli’s imperiousness. They will need those batting alongside him to lighten the load of India’s very own Atlas. because it’ll get spoiled,” he said. Kohli went on to talk about how he used to “go mad” after every time he would lose a match.

“For me, winning is like an obsession. I’ve started to accept losses only now, but earlier, I would just go mad (when I lost),” he said.

But the captain added that now he has started to understand his responsibilities on the field.

“I realise now this is not just about me working hard and doing something on the field, but also about seeing the larger picture. That I have this opportunity to do something special for my country,” the 29-year old said.