Wrote something on @imVkohli on Facebook last year after the India-Pakistan match. Trying to reproduce the same on Twitter. Meanwhile, a very happy birthday to one of the finest of our times and a personal favourite.

#HappyBirthdayVirat

Long thread alert:

Cricket fields these days are under strict watch. A profusion of cameras are the big brothers of modern cricket. One such cannonesque camera helped tear open the ‘Sandpapergate’. In an India-Pakistan match, it is evident that the captains will be the cynosure of all eyes.

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This is why one could see Sarfaraz Ahmed yawning while this high-profile encounter, a war minus the shooting, was underway. The commentators referred to the Indian captain as well, both times, while batting and fielding.

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He is extremely alert and yet remains immersed in his game, noticing every single time when and how the bowler is releasing the ball while he is in the non-striker’s end, follows it up to the point the ball reaches the batsman facing it and then records the latter’s reaction.

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Hence that shock-and-awe face when MSD swung his bat for a six off Mitchell Starc in the game against Australia. He appears to be a huge blotting paper, so passionate that he wants to maximize the slightest of opportunities on the field, soaking everything along his way.

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@imVkohli is a cricket writer’s delight. A columnist can mix all the adjectives on a colour palette and throw at the canvas that is Kohli. He can mix a plethora of imagery tinged with hyperbole all over and still not run out of words to describe the Delhite’s cricketing genius. +

The game in its early days majorly thrived at the expense of the critic. The pen decided who would achieve cricketing immortality. This is how the fairy tales associated with the likes of WG, Trumper and of course, Bradman started circulating and are still etched in our minds.
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Virat is the exact antithesis of what cricket stood for eons. A decade from now, no one would have remotely believed that this guy, smelling of a ruffian and forever ready for a dogfight, would carry Indian cricket and along with it, the hopes of billions, on his shoulders.

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Initially a few Ranji matches old, then came the U-19 trophy. In the first IPL, passed by Delhi initially, he was bought off at a measly INR 2 mn by RCB as part of their U-23 quota. His first season was nothing spectacular but the narrative was to change in the coming decade.

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The last time India faced Pakistan in an ICC tournament before the 2019 World Cup was the Champions Trophy final in 2017. Pakistan was the weaker team then as well, and let’s just safely say that it was a bad day in office for Kohli and co.

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Yet I was caught by surprise in the post-match presentation ceremony. Virat gracefully accepted the defeat and heartily shared a laugh with his teammates and congratulated the opponents on a phenomenal win.

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And then, last year, when he urged Indians to leave the country if they can’t support the national team, the fanboy in me was left a little disillusioned. This was possibly a result of too much attention on him, something which came along with a bagful of responsibilities.

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In the past few years, BCCI has literally revolved around Kohli. He has had a say in everything, from choosing the current coach to opening the new cricket academy, and somehow, deep down, I believed, that took a toll.

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Coming back to the WC clash, one image that defined the game was when he asked Wahab Riaz if he was alright. Towards the end of the Indian innings, Md. Amir, at one point threw a slew of words at him, possibly at the heat of the moment, with no apparent retaliation from Kohli.

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Against Australia, he requested the crowd to stop booing Steve Smith. Few years back, the same guy flashed his middle finger towards supporters in a test series. He has always spoken highly of both Amir and Smith, something quite perplexing wrt how he began at the first place.

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Kohli’s metamorphosis into a sane mind yet retaining his insane hunger would put Kafka to shame. He met Anushka Sharma on the sets of a shampoo ad, and after an on-and-off relationship, finally married her in the later half of 2017.

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His general outlook has changed since then, and with it changed his approach to cricket. And after all such shenanigans, he will possibly steer clear and if everything goes well in the next few years, will retire as the most influential cricketer in the subcontinent.

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Cricket, at least in this country, will be judged on two separate eras in the 21st century, with Kohli being the Christ. All we can hope for is this golden spree never stops and he is spared the crucifixion, something his predecessors (including SRT and MSD) could not elude.

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But all these time, we have always known, Virat Kohli is not one to whisper. He is here to make his presence felt, loud and clear.

Happy Birthday @imVkohli, once again. You have a very good one!

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