Unapologetically yours, Virat Kohli – ESPN،
Fifty now. The big five oh. Virat Kohli has just cemented himself in sporting history by surpassing one of cricket’s great untouchable records at breakneck speed, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar’s 49 ODI centuries in just over half the time that it took the great man. For a generation that grew up on Tendulkar, carrying India on his shoulders and leading it to the forefront of the world game, this seems such a ridiculous and unfathomable feat.
Ask Kohli, who is of this generation, and he will tell you that he is nothing without his predecessor, that Tendulkar’s achievement remains unmatched no matter what the numbers tell you, that Tendulkar blazed the path on which Kohli driven his F1 car his career. . But he did it in a style all his own.
Where Tendulkar was the quintessential ’90s hero: someone soft-spoken, unassuming, someone your parents would look at and say “Why can’t you be more like him?”, Kohli DGAF.
He wants the spotlight, revels in it, and doesn’t care what you or your parents think. Where “Saaachin! Saaaachin!” would have been greeted with a gentle wave of the hand and that smile that will melt your heart, why-is-he-so-cute, Kohli will burst into bhangra. He will play the role of conductor of the orchestra that is the Indian cricket crowd. He will imitate Shah Rukh Khan’s iconic moves. He will joke with the opposition, he will insult them (Ben Stokes, anyone?), he will hug them. He praises effusively – telling anyone who will listen that AB de Villiers is the GOAT, bowing to Chris Gayle’s T20 magnificence – but doesn’t blush when praised in turn .
“Yeah, obviously I’m fine.” In every sense of the word, it reflects modern India’s vision of itself. Everyone here wants to be Kohli.
He is the third most followed athlete on Instagram (which always seems to surprise the average American podcaster). He commands the highest price for endorsements in Indian sports: BharatPe founder Ashneer Grover claimed earlier this year that he signed 11 national team cricketers for half the price of Kohli . Any promotional material from any broadcaster from any cricket-playing country will feature Kohli. Australia calls him “King”. Popularity, cojones, respect from outside the country and material wealth – Virat Kohli has it all. He’s an über alpha male in a country that worships alpha males.
And yet, he is different.
The angry young kid who wanted to fight with anything and everything has been replaced with a completely different type of energy…and it’s pretty cool.
Kohli is now an alpha male who is not afraid to tell the world that at one time he was suffering, that he felt alone. The one who admitted his game needed improvement, then worked on it and burst out laughing when he scored a drought-ending century. It was a self-deprecating laugh, directed at himself: “Is that why I’ve been crying for two years?” Alpha males, especially Indian ones, don’t make fun of themselves. Kohli does it.
He celebrates the triumphs of his teammates much more than his own and defends them loudly, stronger than himself. He may love the spotlight, but he loves sharing it even more.
His obsession is legendary, sacrificing his favorite foods and devoting every waking hour to perfecting his body and skills in his quest for greatness, but he abandons this endless quest for glory (and what’s more glorious than a Test series victory against Australia). there?) so he could be there for his wife and the birth of their child. He is as much Mr. Anushka Sharma as she is Mrs. Virat Kohli: and he loves normalizing that in a society that doesn’t do it.
He understands this generation but doesn’t necessarily pander to them, which somehow makes him even more popular. He is the pinnacle of masculinity and is single-handedly trying to redefine what that term means in this country.
Well, almost on his own. Neeraj Chopra is arguably the only other sportsman in the country who is on the same alpha male plane as Kohli. And just like Kohli, Chopra is different. The javelin thrower is an apex predator on the field, but once he gets off he has all the energy of an adorable puppy. He thanks people for staying awake and watching him, when he could just as easily have used the screen time to shout about his own success. He embraces his competitors and does not advocate any nationalist toxicity.
He is, like Kohli, a serial winner: they are the best at what they do, and they do it under the most intense pressure in world sport. Chopra runs with a country that expects him to win every time, and he wins every time. Kohli comes out with a billion eyes on him, and bats like he’s in his backyard, fighting with his kid. Pressure is for them what it is for carbon: the heavier it is, the more they transform into shiny objects.
Where Kohli is suave and urbane, Chopra is delightfully desi, a country boy at heart no matter where he is, but they are both comparable. Neither did Tendulkar, but Tendulkar was never them either.
Tendulkar and Kohli command the same kind of respect for what they did from the 22-metre line. Kohli’s removal of Lasith Malinga and Sri Lanka in Hobart was as audacious as Tendulkar’s takedown of Shane Warne and Australia in Sharjah, Kohli’s physics-defying six against Haris Rauf was treated with the same shock speechless as Shoaib Akhtar, Kohli, Tendulkar’s finest. the pursuit of GOAT-ness is as unquestioned as Tendulkar’s goal-setting was. But over these 22 meters, they carry two distinct auras.
If Tendulkar’s courage consisted of venturing beyond sporting horizons spared by other Indian athletes, Kohli’s is more global. His rise on the pitch reflected India’s rise to absolute control of world football, but he was willing to open up more to those around him, to change his habits when he recognized that he could there are better methods.
Kohli could easily have become an iconic figure of hypernationalism, but that is not the case today. Gone are the days when he would criticize you for not having an Indian batting role model. Today, he preaches camaraderie and international fraternity. Just look at the way he greets a Babar Azam or a Shaheen Shah Afridi. These displays of friendship are more public than ever because Kohli recognizes the impact of these visuals. He speaks a language that this generation knows and he wants them to understand his message.
The online abuse – someone recently tweeted, “wondering” why Kohli wore green for Diwali, and it’s one of the sweetest things he’s subjected to – is the proverbial water off his back. ‘a duck, because he knows every one of those trolls will be back. , proclaiming him king the moment he bends one knee and bowls a perfectly reasonable delivery through extra cover, his MRF sticker bat forming the most delicious arc in the sport.
And so he will remain who he is, without any excuse. He might get a 51st century in the next match or a golden duck, but he won’t change. He will ask the crowds to stop singing about Shubman Gill’s supposed girlfriend and focus on Gill the athlete. He will run harder than anyone on the team, holding himself to physical standards that most would consider foreign to the sport he plays. He will tell you not to light too many crackers, to protect the environment. He will dance as his captains make adjustments on the field and rush to their aid when they need advice. He’ll shake off his bad foot, take a wicket down the leg side and scream at the absurdity of it all. He will stand up to anyone who abuses a teammate and thinks they are an easier target. He will look around and see a stadium full of ‘Virat 18’ jerseys and bask in the glory. He will wear his heart on his sleeve, speak his mind, and continue to not care what anyone else thinks about any of it. After all, he knows he’s the best.
