Virat realised the scenario around him was changing
Virat Kohli’s announcement resigning from Test captaincy must have come as a shock to all. He had a better claim to continue as India Test captain than he had as RCB captain or captain of the Indian T20 team. What’s interesting about all these big decisions from Virat is how they have quickly followed each other, in a matter of months. It’s not that difficult to imagine what may have prompted these calls.
Virat the cricketer is now going through the toughest phase of his career; he is finding batting more difficult than he has done before. His strike rate as batter has been falling off the cliff in the last 18 months or so. It was 20 in the last innings of the SA Test series after having faced 143 balls, on a pitch where young Keegen Peterson showed how easy it was to not just survive but score runs. Virat in his pomp has scored more freely against better attacks on trickier pitches.
This is the second time that he has been afflicted by the famous bad patch that spares no one. The first one of note was against England in 2014 when Jimmy Anderson troubled him outside off and he averaged just 13 in that series. He immediately bounced back, in the next overseas series, by getting four hundreds in Australia, confirming his status as a modern day great. This time, he is finding getting back into form a little more arduous.
What really surprised me this IPL was seeing him bat, how getting an IPL 50 had become so important for him. He seemed to be losing sight of the team’s needs just to reach that landmark to demonstrate that he was back in form and at his best. Virat had never once shown this trait in all these years, even when he was struggling for runs. Clearly, this man was feeling the heat like never before.
Another thing that may have got Virat to feel that the walls were closing in on him was Rohit Sharma’s success as a Test batter overseas. Virat now had serious competition for the post. Ajinkya Rahane with his woeful batting form had fallen off the race for Indian Test captaincy, plus Rohit also had great credentials as T20 captain because of
MI’s success, the heights Virat could never reach as IPL captain in nine years.
It’s not easy being captain in three formats but Virat’s superb fitness, his zest for the game and to lead too, saw him doing this job pretty well. But it seems like he wasn’t one for whom leadership mattered more than getting runs. If the strain of remaining captain was going to come in the way of his coming back into form as a batter, it was an easy choice for him to make.
The other factor that I believe came into play was Virat realising that the scenario around him was now set to change. Ravi Shastri, whose only job was to keep Virat happy in the head, is out. Remember how the Anil Kumble and Virat partnership had become untenable?
Virat wants to do his thing, however bizarre it may seem to others. Also, now there was a different leadership in the BCCI, and I am guessing that, along with new coach Rahul Dravid, who was never going to be a Ravi Shastri, Virat knew that those good old days of unconditional support from all quarters was gone. After the last Test in SA which ended in a bad defeat for India, I say bad defeat because this South African team was by far the weakest it’s ever been, and certainly the most ‘easy to beat’ team that any Indian team had encountered before in SA.
It was a great opportunity for Virat the captain to conquer this final frontier for Indian cricket.
Virat would have known that India’s great win in Australia against a full-strength Australian
team came more under Rahane’s captaincy than his, although Virat’s unflinching supporter Ravi Shastri made it a point to remind us even then in the winning moments there that this was Virat’s team even if Rahane was marshalling it.
So, the dream of the ‘final frontier’ came crashing down and we got ample evidence of Virat’s desperation as captain when he did that stump mic thing, a serious misdemeanour I thought.
What’s also been curious to me is how he tends to announce his resignation as captain when he gets the slightest inkling that his position as captain was becoming vulnerable. With his long-standing poor ICC and IPL records, he knew it was not going to be easy to remain in the
leadership position. Announcing his resignation from Indian T20 captaincy before the World Cup was an attempt, I thought, by Virat to relieve pressure off himself.
It was win-win now for Virat the captain, whichever way the campaign went. Virat likes to remain ‘un-sackable’. He is not like a Sunil Gavaskar who, when he was under threat as captain, announced his resignation only after they had won the mini World Cup in Australia in 1985.
Virat the captain is nothing like Virat the batter. When it comes to batting, he is a real fighter and hence a true batting great.
Will India miss Virat the captain and will this be a setback to the team? As long as Virat the batter is around, no, not really.