Derek Pringle – It’s all-out aggression for Virat Kohli
Derek Pringle analyses a masterclass from a batsman who has tempered his white-ball aggression to end England jinx
Virat Kohli marked his 50th Test with his highest score against England in the second Test at Visakhapatnam, a feat which conquered as many personal demons as it did opposition bowlers.
Kohli is a fabulous batsmen in all formats of the game but his Test record against England, at least before this Test, was poor by his lofty standards. Before Vizag, he averaged just 20.55 in 10 Tests against them, the numbers of a modern tailender and not one of the finest batsmen of the current era.
Such a poor record against one team can cause a man mental scars or at the very least a phobia, so Kohli had more than just his coach’s voice telling him he was overdue against an England side emboldened by their fine showing in the first Test.
This aversion to England is where he differs so markedly from Cheteshwar Pujara, the other centurion on the opening day in Vizag. Pujara has an affinity for England’s bowlers, at least in India, where he has made four hundreds against them.
Unlike Pujara, yet like many of today’s Test batsmen (think David Warner), Kohli is essentially a product of white ball cricket and the freneticism those formats require. But whereas Warner has tempered that side of his game with calmness and control, Kohli still looks wound up to the point where something must explode.
In the past it has. The recall of James Anderson for this Test would have stirred memories, given the five times Anderson has dismissed him previously. Mostly, this has been accomplished by probing an off-side line where a fifth stump would be and waiting for him to lose patience. Until now, the wait has rarely been a long one.
Kohli’s energy at the crease and those blazing eyes beneath his helmet bring to mind William Blake’s words – “Tiger tiger, burning bright, In the forests of the night, what immortal hand could frame thy fearful symmetry?” Although more the province of fast bowlers or those who play contact sports, this obvious intensity differs from most other great Indian batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar. Their way has generally been to treat batting as a higher calling, which requires both serenity and poise.
Perhaps Kohli needs to be wound up to perform at concert pitch. If he does, his batting has not yet matched his general body language in this Test where his strokeplay has been both thoughtful and precise, after he’d won a good toss.
Gone too were the extravagant celebrations for fifty and a hundred in which he used to indulge, the howl of delight and ecstatic leap in the air presumably deemed inappropriate since he succeeded the statesman-like MS Dhoni as captain of India.
Mind you he does still have “Genius” emblazoned across his bat.
Worryingly for England this was a business-like knock shorn of frills from India’s captain and it needed to be. His team were 22-2 when he arrived at the crease to face his nemesis Anderson, after he and Stuart Broad had dismissed India’s openers.
Anderson tested him by dangling the carrot outside offstump but Kohli resisted all temptation, winning the early mind games when Anderson was forced into trying to
bounce him out instead. It was at this point where Alastair Cook, his opposite number, probably helped his cause by introducing Zafar Ansari, in his first resort to spin, instead of Moeen Ali or Adil Rashid.
Had Cook paid heed to England’s analyst, who had presumably dug out the figures prior to the series, he would have known that Kohli averages an incredible 156 against left-arm spinners in Tests. Against off-spinners that number drops to 43.9 while it is 57 against wrist-spinners.
Factor in, too, that Ansari is the most callow of England’s three spinners, and that Rashid was the most effective in the first Test, and you wonder why Cook did it. The net result was that Kohli took the easy pickings on offer from Ansari, of which there were plenty, to the point where he was well established by the time Cook tried his next gambit.
Part of why he is so good against leftarm spinners is the natural movement his body makes when driving. Although he has a firm, bottom-handed grip on the bat, he tends not to play across the line like some bottom-handers I know. Add to that the way he gets the ball beneath his nose before he drives, by the quick use of his feet or wrists, and his low centre of gravity, and you understand why he prospers against them while others struggle.
There was a lofted shot off Ansari early on that went for four over long-on, but otherwise England’s bowlers were largely complicit in making his and Pujara’s innings largely risk-free by bowling too many bad balls.
The pitch, slower with less bounce than Rajkot, proved a hindrance in finding the optimum speed and length to bowl, as did the lack of a huge total acting as comfort blanket. But whereas Kohli and Pujara adapted and adjusted their games as if by second nature, England’s bowlers struggled to be competitive with only the returning Anderson displaying the requisite nous.
It wasn’t the perfect captain’s innings, and Kohli did offer a chance when he was on 56, but it was close.
That opportunity came when his swat hook off Ben Stokes carrying low to long leg where Rashid, arguably the worst fielder in the current team, put the catch down.
It was a tough chance though Stokes’ bellow of disappointment gave notice of just how painful it might prove – something that had become plain when Kohli finished the day unbeaten on 151 and the fire in his eyes undimmed.
“Whereas Kohli and Pujara adapted and adjusted their games by second nature, England’s bowlers struggled to be competitive "