England won the test, but Virat won the hearts at Edgbaston.
On the fourth day of the first Test at Edgbaston when Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik came to bat in the morning, the battle between India and England was almost fifty-fifty. With Virat Kohli standing like a rock in the second innings after his breathtaking knock of 149 in the first innings of the match, which pretty much kept India alive in the game, all the expectations of the Indians were pinned on him. All he needed was somebody to support and built a partnership with on the other end. While England was in desperate need of taking Kohli’s wicket to seal the victory over their 1000th Test match.
But, the moment Jimmy Anderson got Dinesh Karthik out within less than 20 minutes after the play had started, India seemed in a bit of backfoot with the game tilting towards England. However, Virat Kohli’s presence on the crease had kept Indian fans’ hope alive. But one delivery of Ben Stokes changed the entire picture of the game. Virat missed the ball and it hit his pad which Umpire gave out on being appealed English cricketers. Though it was very clear that the bowl was hitting the stumps, yet since India had one review left, Virat Kohli took that review as it would have hardly mattered even if India would have lost its all reviews once Kohli got out. Finally, the review taken India didn’t change the umpire decision. And Virat Kohli went back to pavilion with a disappointment on his face.
Except for Virat Kohli, none of the Indian batsmen looked confident enough to score runs. The likes of Vijay, Dhawan, Rahul and Rahane completely disappointed with their bat. While all through this, Virat Kohli played like a true warrior. It’s not that he didn’t have difficulty in picking up the swing deliveries of bowlers, but he showed the patience and let the good deliveries go to the gloves of the wicketkeeper, and continued chipping in hitting the boundaries and taking singles and doubles in the deliveries he felt confident to strike.
One of the biggest attributes of the great players is that they learn from their mistakes. And Virat Kohli proved it right emerging as a different batsman who is more technically sound and mentally strong to hit the balls after his debacle during England Tour in 2014. And, as far as Indian batting department is concerned, it would not be exaggerating to say that Indian team looked like ‘One Man Army’ completely dependent upon Virat Kohli. It’s the high time for the rest of the batsmen in the team to not only introspect upon what went wrong on the ground but also to learn from the performance of Virat Kohli.
If a few positives had to be taken from the performance of India, it would be obviously Indian bowling attack. Indian bowling in this match deserves a lot of applauds. The way Ishant, Ashwin, Shammi, and Umesh bowled in both the innings is praiseworthy. We must give them due credit for taking twenty wickets and restricting England to the score India could have easily chased had one batsman along with Virat played even half of what he played.
England won the game, but Virat Kohli once again won the hearts.
Currently, I am pursuing B.A(H) Political science from Satyawati College, Delhi University.
I like public speaking, writing and reading in my leisure.
