Kohli’s reputation has broken SA’s spirit
India skipper’s dominance with the bat is gnawing into the collective mental strength of the opposition
Virat Kohli is a double century scoring machine. Against South Africa in Pune, the India captain built a near flawless 254* (336) to anchor the first innings as the hosts progressed to pile up 601 for five wickets.
It was, remarkably, the seventh time Kohli had passed 200 in a Test match. It isn’t an uncommon sight now—Kohli raising his bat four times in an innings. He now has more double centuries than Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, and Javed Miandad. Only three players in the history of Test cricket have scored more double-centuries: Donald Bradman, Kumar Sangakkara and Brian Lara.
Some might look at this and think Kohli has been boosted by the sheer volume of cricket this modern Indian side plays, but that would be doing him a disservice.
Numbers tell 27% of Kohli’s Test centuries have been converted into doubles, which is the fourth best conversion rate in Test history if you consider the players with at least 20 centuries at that level. Of that crop, only three players (Bradman, Sangakkara and Wally Hammond) have turned a higher proportion of their centuries into double centuries.
So what is fuelling Kohli’s penchant for double centuries? On one level we do have to check the achievement. All but one of his seven doubles were made in India; the sole outlier his first ever double, a 200 (283) against the West Indies in Antigua in 2016.
It’s not a dampener. The overwhelming majority of players are better in home conditions. But the fact that his home conditions are naturally suited to converting centuries into double centuries does have to be taken into consideration. Since 2000, 14.3% of individual Test centuries in India have gone on to be converted into double centuries; the only country to have a higher conversion percentage is Pakistan.
So, Kohli’s home conditions do contribute to his excellence in churning out double centuries. But it would be unrepresentative to place too much onus purely on that.
The main contributor, ultimately, is Kohli himself. There are a few notable patterns in the way Kohli constructs Test innings which seem to inherently lend themselves to posting big scores.
Throughout his innings, his level of risk doesn’t really seem to change. He starts out secure, then continues to bat with the same false shot percentage for the next 250 runs, if you give him the chance ie.
You might expect some players to have a more pronounced period of ‘getting in’, and thus a higher false shot percentage in the first 25 runs.
You could equally expect some players to see their risk increase as fatigue really starts to set in. For Kohli, neither is true. He just bats. Well, that’s not quite true.
SHIFTING GEARS
Whilst he bats with the same exemplary execution whether he’s on 19 or 190, the actual nature of the method he’s executing does change. It changes quite a lot.
Just like in ODIs where Kohli is the master of pressing the accelerator with greater intensity, Kohli the Test batsman is clear in how he wants to increase his scoring intent as the innings progresses.
Again, this isn’t atypical but the ease with which Kohli appears to go through the gears all the way through to attacking one-in-two deliveries when he’s passed the 200 mark, is outstanding.
In essence, these two aspects of Kohli’s batting help him convert so many of his centuries into doubles. He is able to attack more and the longer he’s at the crease, he does it without increasing his risk.
That is a potent combination. There are other, less easily calculated factors which do come into this. Often, well-set batsmen on 160* are forced to hit out with undue care or control because the team situation requires it.
Kohli in India rarely has this problem, not as captain or batsman. Such has been the supremacy of India’s attack in home Tests (since England’s victory in 2012) that whenever the opportunity has been there for the batsmen to just mercilessly pile on the first innings hurt, they have been able to take it without serious concerns over time pressure.
The most incalculable element in this scenario is the effect that the batsman’s identity has on the bowlers, fielders and the opposition captain.
If making double centuries is a process of slowly and methodically seeing off everyone of the opposition’s threats, then gnawing into their collective mental strength before a ball has even been bowled has to play a role. In red ball cricket, Kohli may not have quite the same indomitable aura as Steve Smith but he is not far off, particularly in home conditions.
To have broken the spirit of the bowlers purely through reputation is always going to have an effect on a Test series.
WHILST KOHLI BATS WITH THE SAME EXEMPLARY EXECUTION WHETHER HE’S ON 19 OR 190, THE ACTUAL NATURE OF THE METHOD HE’S EXECUTING DOES CHANGE.