Virat Kohli - the captain who listens to his boys crying wolf
Minutes after play resumed on Day 2 at the Lord’s Cricket Ground, Virat Kohli was involved in his customary fist-pump as Mohammed Siraj accounted for Dom Sibley. The Englishman, who had perished to Kohli and Siraj’s leg-side trap a few days ago, was dismissed in a similar manner.
Kohli’s joy increased several bounds a ball later when Siraj completely cleaned up Haseeb Hameed – a youngster hoping to write his own fairy tale. Yet, this seemed to be Siraj’s moment – a moment that has come about due to the undeniable skill that he has brought to the fore but also because of the trust Kohli has placed in him.
Thus, at that juncture, it seemed that Sibley’s indiscretion, which basically embodied a cyclist ramming into a roadblock that had been assembled centuries ago, would be the major piece of indiscretion in the post-Tea session. Well, that was until Kohli and Siraj decided to enact their infamous two-act DRS play – something that has unwittingly become a bit of a theme lately.
On the final ball of the 21st over, Siraj steamed in and bowled a late in-swinging delivery that also decked into Joe Root off the surface. The England captain was rooted to his crease and played all around it as the ball thudded into his pads. The Indians, including Kohli and Siraj, went up almost instantly. The umpire, though, had other ideas and waved away India’s enquiries.
Over the next few seconds, Siraj performed his best impersonation of the boy that terribly wants a couple of extra candies for Christmas, meaning that Kohli – the guardian of the DRS collection – had to relent and opt for the review.
Interestingly, when Kohli was contemplating going for the review, there were a few who were suggesting otherwise. Rishabh Pant, who being the wicket-keeper often holds binding sway over their DRS calls, was pretty reluctant. Yet, Kohli brought out the dreaded “T” and consigned India to another wasted review.
Two overs later, or more specifically on the fourth ball of the 23rd over, lightning struck again. Not just because Siraj managed to breach Root’s defences and rap him on the pad, but also because he convinced Kohli to go for another contentious review.
This time, too, Pant opposed the idea and quite vehemently at that. Somehow, though, Kohli only took note of it once the review had been taken. Comically, Kohli also gave Pant an earful for allowing the former to go upstairs. As was the case in the 21st over, doom awaited the Indians and once the review had fallen down the slope at Lord’s, Kohli seemed quite riled up.
To an extent, it was understandable considering India had burnt two reviews. On further introspection, it was the recurrence of a pattern that has unwittingly become synonymous with Kohli’s captaincy tenure.
Over the past few years, Kohli has been the central figure as India have morphed from a dominant home side to one that can hold its own across conditions. Twin successes Down Under have followed and though Kohli was on the losing end in the World Test Championship final, there is a feeling that he has led India to greater (often unparalleled) heights in red-ball cricket.
Several fast bowlers and spinners have also flourished under Kohli, and India have arguably become the best bowling team across the globe. Despite that, though, they’ve somehow been pretty wretched with their reviews while bowling.
Virat Kohli and India have a poor recent DRS record
At the time of writing, India’s 24 most recent reviews in the field have only yielded three positive results. On all other occasions, Kohli has been off the mark. In some cases, the nature of the reviews have also bordered on absurdity, thus highlighting that this is perhaps not Kohli’s strongest suit.
If Kohli's overall captaincy tenure is concerned, he is third on the list of captains to have lost the most number of reviews. Of the 169 reviews Kohli has taken in the field, he has lost 118 reviews, with only 30 being successful. Thus, that roughly equates to a percentage of 69.8 when talking about the ratio of reviews lost to the number of reviews taken.
The Indian captain hasn’t particularly been helped by bowlers such as Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur and Siraj – bowlers who think the batter is out even if the ball has only grazed the outer coating of paint on their pads. At Lord’s on Friday, there was ample evidence of the same.
More worryingly, Kohli seems to opt for reviews that his team aren’t too convinced about. Apart from Siraj at Lord’s, not many seemed adamant enough to want the review. Yet, in that split second, the excitement of wanting to shush the crowd all over again seemed too hard to ignore.
Moving forward, it is something that Kohli simply needs to add to his captaincy bow. In recent months, there have been occasions when he has made the right decision to review. However, most times, he has relied upon a consensus rather than just trusting his instinct.
Usually, Kohli’s instinct is pretty good – he’s perhaps the greatest modern-day batter the world has seen, for goodness’ sake. When it comes to reviews, though, it remains highly questionable.
With India still in control at Lord’s, it might not matter as much. However, when push comes to shove, the last thing Kohli would want is for him and his team to be helpless when an umpiring howler takes place – something that Messrs. Nathan Lyon, Tim Paine and of course Ben Stokes would testify to.
On that instance, Paine had been profligate with his reviews and eventually ran out of them as Stokes survived a perilously close LBW shout. The Englishman did the rest and the game became etched in Australian memories for all the wrong reasons.
In the past, there have been numerous people who have wanted Kohli to take a cue from his celebrated predecessor MS Dhoni. Though Kohli has fared relatively well by living on the edge of his own sword, he might do well to just understand the finer nuances from the former skipper – who at one point, even forced people to dub the DRS as the Dhoni Review System.
To an extent, it could be very hard for Kohli to replicate the kind of calmness Dhoni exuded, for the Royal Challengers Bangalore captain is a totally different personality.
He likes to be in the game at all times, he wears his heart on his sleeve. So much so that even a person without an inkling of how cricket works would know what is happening by looking at Kohli’s mannerisms. And that has directly contributed to the heights he has scaled in his international career.
But from a captain’s perspective, he needs to develop a mechanism that eradicates the wastefulness in his usage of the DRS, considering it has become an enormous part of the modern game.
Till then, though, Kohli will go down as the captain who listened too much to his boys who cried wolf incessantly. And the entire world knows how that story transpired!