India’s captain is the best chance we have of countering the global dominance of T20s and one-day internationalsVirat Kohli knows about pressure. He is Sachin Tendulkar for the Twitter generation, with 23.3 million people hanging on his every emoji. When he bats, a country of 1.3 billion fidgets with vicarious need. Most of us can barely cope with trying to make ourselves happy but Kohli is in a blissful state where pressure is a drug that stimulates all kinds of achievement. He averages more than 50 in all three forms of cricket, an unprecedented record, and has turned the extraordinary into the everyday.He probably will not mind, then, if we add a bit more pressure. Virat, you may be the only person who can...
India’s captain is on the verge of becoming the first player to be No1 simultaneously in Tests, ODIs and T20s – a feat that would end debate about his status among the greatsA disturbing thing happened last month. Sachin Tendulkar, the most unapproachable personage in cricket, was suddenly eager to be interviewed. Tendulkar is currently promoting a documentary film called Sachin: A Billion Dreams. At moments like these The Talent often finds itself wheeled out, grudgingly, for a 10-minute round-table clichefest.This was different though. This time Tendulkar was jarringly up for it. Not only was he available. Sachin seemed to have picked me out specifically to interview him, insisting above all on this detail. Yes, his people confirmed, Sachin is...
Tourists will need to adopt fearless mode to bring India’s new one-day captain down from the rare levels at which he is batting in the 50-over gameVirat Kohli spoke engagingly for 10 minutes before sweeping out of the room and down the wide concrete stairs at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, trailed by an ever-thickening swarm of hangers-on, and drawing from somewhere a Beatlemania-style barrage of squeals as he emerged briefly into the light before heading out to the middle for practice.It seems fair to say there is not another cricketer quite like Kohli, if only because there never has been. Even other modern Indian heroes – the endlessly revered Sachin Tendulkar, the punchier, poppier MS Dhoni – have been...
Spinning all-rounder produces first for his country with Test century at No9 and helps Virat Kohli tighten home side’s grip on fourth matchWhile England’s selection on this tour has become so contorted that their No4 batsman, Moeen Ali, registered a third-ball duck barely an hour after sending down the last of his 53 overs, a spin-bowling all-rounder has emerged for India who could easily be the find of the series.Jayant Yadav was a name on few lips when England arrived in the country five weeks ago and did not make the first Test in Rajkot. But since his debut a week later in Visakhapatnam, this softly spoken 27-year-old – a gentle Jayant – has quietly gone about becoming the spin...
The brash captain is a character worlds apart from the icon whose place in India’s hearts he has inherited, but he proves similarly beguiling in crushing EnglandVirat Kohli is a son of Delhi but, at 3pm on Saturday, as the ball burst through the hands of a diving Ben Stokes at cover and the India captain scampered through for a single, the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai erupted in a way that suggested adoption papers from the city may soon be forthcoming.Here was Kohli, the bristling embodiment of a confident modern India, notching his 15th Test century and celebrating in fitting fashion. The leap in the air, the swift removal of the helmet, the circling of the bat to all parts...