‘Play an aggressive brand of cricket’ is an oft-heard cliché in the context of international cricket. What does it really mean? Does it mean teams and players indulge in sledging, get under the opponents skin, or use intimidatory tactics?
This Indian cricket team definitely plays an aggressive brand of cricket, and it was none other than captain Virat Kohli who showcased the team’s aggressive attitude. On Monday, when most experts were predicting a dull draw, Virat Kohli gave his team an opportunity to push for a win with a brilliant century.
On a day when the pendulum swung to and fro, Team India found themselves in a spot of bother, after losing KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane in a short span of time. The home team slipped further when Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin were dismissed within 20 runs of each other. At 269-6 – with a lead of 147, Team India were definitely in a situation of strife.
When Ashwin was dismissed, India had the skipper batting at the other end on 52(82) but he, by now, had the measure of the Lankan bowlers. Most teams would have taken a caution-first approach in such a situation and looked to play out time. Not Virat Kohli though.
The captain decided instead to make a statement of who owned the area in the middle.
Virat had been dismissed for a Duck in the first essay, he had a very ordinary record in Test matches at Kolkata. But that was all in the past. Now, the Indian team needed a big one from their captain. Virat delivered. In a matter of minutes – as if at the touch of a button – Virat upped the ante and bulldozed his way to a century. If Virat brought up his half-century off 80 balls, he would need only 39 balls thereafter to reach the three-figure score; he reached the hundred in style, lifting Suranga Lakmal over md-off and depositing the ball into the stands.
From the time Virat reached his half-century, what he did in the middle and what the batsmen at the other end did make for an interesting read; Virat scored 53 from 39 balls, while the rest of the batsmen accumulated 25 runs from 52 balls (S/R 48.08). Courtesy Virat’s blitz, India got to a score which gave them a chance to set a fourth innings target and nearly sufficient time for the bowlers to dismiss the opposition.
50th International Century
When he got to his century, Virat Kohli rode his way into the record books and equalled a long-standing record; he equalled Sunil Gavaskar’s record for the most centuries scored by an Indian captain in Test cricket.
While Gavaskar needed 37 Tests to score his 11 hundreds as captain, Kohli has achieved the same in 30 Test matches only!
There are players who get weighed down by pressure and responsibility and there are others who thrive under pressure, who revel when they’re given additional responsibility.
Virat Kohli clearly belongs to the latter category. His numbers as India’s Test captain are phenomenal; he averages 60.54 in the 30 Test matches he has been at the helm and has scored 11 hundreds – more than any other player has scored in the time Virat has been captain.
That Virat Kohli relishes captaincy and believes in leading from the front can also be established from the fact that in the Test matches in which he has been at the helm, no other batsman has been innings top-scorer more often – or scored more runs – than the captain himself.
Despite being at the helm of the Indian team for only a couple of years, Virat Kohli has already notched up 21 hundreds as international captain – which is the most among current international cricket captains.
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