For years he churned out hundreds like a machine, then it stopped. Sunday offered the best environment to start againBetween March 2011 and and March 2012, the people waited for Sachin Tendulkar. With 99 international centuries, he was on the verge of something nobody else had ever considered achieving. Cricket stats are usually for a niche set of people, but this one grew as time went on. It sprouted tendrils that curled past the nuffies before lacing their way through broader society. For 33 international innings, more and more people watched each time as Tendulkar walked out to bat and returned without a ton. It almost drove them mad.That wait was a year and four days. Virat Kohli’s version dwarfs...
Kohli built a side that could win in Australia and England, with an emphasis on fast bowling that had never been seen before Virat Kohli has left the building. India’s most vocal captain, on and off the field, signed off from his Test leadership position via social media. A day earlier Kohli had addressed the media after India’s loss to South Africa in the Cape Town Test that gave the home team the series 2-1 but did not hint at stepping down. There was no intimation from the Board of Control for Cricket in India, not so much as a tweet or a media release. When he thought the time was right, Kohli called it.In his time as Test captain...
The batsman with impossibly high standards seems to have lost track of his off stump and his team are sufferingVirat Kohli walked. He had poked outside off, Jos Buttler pouched the ball, the cordon went up in appeal in chorus to the ringmaster, Jimmy Anderson, and India’s fight in the third Test was dead in the water. Except it was not. Doing his duty as vice-captain and non-striker, Ajinkya Rahane prevailed on Kohli to review the decision.The third umpire saw clearly the same daylight between bat and ball that Rahane had, and technology confirmed that the sound that so enthused England and foxed the umpire came from bat brushing pad. It was the last ball of the 87th over and,...
Strange things happen at this ground and, despite a sensible strategy after winning the toss, India fell apart in the third TestIt’s 11.23am and Virat Kohli is jogging down the Headingley steps. The sky is a watery grey, the air is thick with cheers and boos and India are four for two. In his 15-year career as a batter and captain, Kohli has pretty much seen it all. He has played international cricket in 17 countries, overcome adversity of every sort, faced down every kind of challenge in every format. But he has never won the toss at Headingley before.Maybe this matters, and maybe it doesn’t. But there’s something about this place that seems to play tricks on the mind....
Infamously prickly, can-explode-will-explode India captain has been a man becalmed but there are hints the rage is returningHow are we doing? Hanging in there? I’m talking specifically to the cricket fans, a collective who will truly deserve their participation medal when the World Cup reaches its conclusion next weekend. Sure, football lovers may claim their work suffered when England’s women made it to the semi-finals. Wimbledon aficionados will soon be bragging that they’ve done nothing but secretly stream tennis on their phones for two weeks. To followers of the Cricket World Cup, however, they are as the mayfly.Even the most highly trained of box-set bingers would struggle to keep up with a regime of 58 eight‑hour games (yes, I’m including...