Watching India, Feeling Kohli

India’s fans showed up in numbers, in the desert heat, early as anything, to watch their heroes.

There are times in life, and in sport, when you get the sense that something significant is about to happen.

This is based on no fact, no logical reasoning and no knowledge of what might happen.

And yet, you can’t shake it. It’s what captains refer to as a gut feeling or a hunch. They roll the dice and some days it works a treat.

After nearly three years of watching Virat Kohli not be himself, in cricketing terms, there was a sense, a smouldering foreboding even, that India’s first match of the Asia Cup, against Pakistan, would be the breakout event.

Fresh from a break, days after an interview in which Kohli had opened up about his struggles, faking intensity and generally not loving cricket or himself as he had his entire life, it felt like the time was right, and the fruit of frustration was ripe for the picking.

At 4.19 pm in Dubai, the Indian cricket team’s extended support staff were out on the ground, well before the 6 pm start, setting out cones, stumps, markers and little tent nets that players fired balls into in fielding drills.

By this time, the queue for fans to get into the stadium had stretched to nearly three kilometres, and the faithful were braving the United Arab Emirates sun to get to their seats early. It was a crisp 43 degrees and threatening to climb. When fans reached the gates of the ground they were told that water bottles were not allowed in and had to be jettisoned. Yet, this was a chance to be a part of India-Pakistan history, and they complied, in the knowledge that complaint would be futile.

At 4.40 pm India’s team bus arrived, setting off a mild frenzy, with those in the ground straining at barricades to try and get a look at their favourites. There were no opportunities for selfies and no chance for conversation, but just being close to their heroes was enough for this lot.

At 4.45 pm, players began entering the playing arena, but it was two minutes later when Kohli emerged. He bowed down and touched the turf in a mark of respect before crossing the ropes and getting on the turf, batting gloves already worn and bat in hand.

Kohli walked to the furthest end of the ground from where physical training drills were set up and took throwdowns. The MRF bat twirled in his hand on his short walk and then he crunched straight drives, off drives and cover drives into the protective nets placed there. After a few minutes, he switched gears and stood adjacent to the nets and cracked some ferocious cuts off full tossed and short balls. 

This was beast mode batting, even if only in a drill. Exactly 10 minutes later, Kohli moved along to join a small group that was taking high catches, launched at them by the fielding coach.

At 5.15 pm, the team got into a huddle. A bearded gent was leading the talk, gesticulating animatedly, and initially, this appeared to be Rohit Sharma. It was actually Dinesh Karthik, and while it was impossible to lip-read what he said, it became clear that he was playing the match, which meant that Rishab Pant would miss out.

When DK was done, Rahul Dravid, the newly Covid-19 negative-minted coach spoke briefly, and he finished by bringing up Kohli’s 100th Twenty20 International appearance. Kohli acknowledged all that had been said before, and gave thanks, to unanimous team applause before retreating to the safety of the dressing room at 5.21 pm.

After Babar Azam called incorrectly at the toss, with the game beginning at 6 pm, Kohli was largely a spectator in the initial overs. He was stationed at cover and with the bowlers trying to hit a hard back of a length, no balls came to him. When the ball went back from the keeper to the bowler, via a chain of fielders, he was involved.

The first time Kohli was involved with a ball that was in play when the game was still alive was at 6.30 pm when he came in from square-leg to pick up and send the red cherry back.

For the rest of Pakistan’s innings, Kohli was on the boundary, and no catches came his way, even as the opposition ended on 147.

India began their chase knowing they had conceded about 20 runs too many, given the dire straits Pakistan were in at one point. But, equally, Pakistan knew they had ended up about 20 runs short, given the conditions and the opposition.

KL Rahul newly returned to the Indian team, dragged on for a first-ball duck, presenting an angled bat to a delivery that should have either been played or left well alone and enter Kohli to the crease at 8.10 pm.

Kohli leaves the first ball he faces well alone and Naseem Shah, the 19-year-old quick on debut in this format, makes a big show of disappointment as the ball sails through to the keeper. The bowler thinks the ball has shaped in enough to threaten the off stump, but in truth it is so wide that the laws of physics would have to be cancelled for it to approach the stumps.

Naseem puts one out there wide and full, and Kohli flashes. All hands and no feet a healthy edge flies fast to second slip. Zaman is not up to the task, diving a touch late to his right.

Now Kohli takes strike again, even if not fresh guard. In the three years of his century drought, the first mistake had often meant an early exit.

Perhaps the cricket luck gods are smiling on him now? 

At 8.25 pm Kohli signals his intent, a pull off Shahnawaz Dahani hitting the advertising hoardings and bouncing back onto the ground before fielders had any real chance to move.

About two overs later, the crowd began Kohli! Kohli! chants, which might have emboldened the former India captain to take on a short ball from Haris Rauf, when the best he managed was a top-edge that carried for six.

At 8.57 pm Kohli tried to cart the ball over cover, playing the inside-out short that he is such a master of, but he was late on the ball and lucky that it speared over point and bounced away to the boundary.

Just when he was looking shaky, Kohli played his second good shot of the day, pumping Haris in front of square on the leg side when he dropped shot. Kohli shaped to pull but the length wasn’t quite there and he whipped the ball imperiously through midwicket.

If one Swallow does not a summer make, two shots cannot a hero remake. In the course of scoring 35, off 34 balls, Kohli could have and should have been dismissed at least four times.

When the game became tight, possibly because the top 3 had failed to fire once more, the blame game begins.

With serious depth in batting, India got across the line, with two balls to spare. But this will not always be the case.

Change must come, top downwards, or bottom pushing to the next level. If not, all India will ask variations of the same question and get no answer.