Virat Kohli, an 18-year-long wait, and a cosmic balancing act

Mint

3 days ago

Virat Kohli has had a more eventful cricket career than most, but even for him, the last 12 months must have been a rollercoaster like no other. He won the T20 World Cup, retired from T20 Internationals, lost a Test series at home to New Zealand in a result nobody would have anticipated, faced great disappointment in Australia - a country he'd always dominated in, won the Champions Trophy, then retired from Test cricket. And then finally, ended Royal Challengers Bengaluru's 18-year wait for a trophy by bringing the IPL 2025 cup home.
Is it any wonder that the emotions bubbled over for Kohli, after that sort of a ride? As Kohli let the tears flow freely when RCB finally lifted the trophy that had eluded them forever, he must have felt the weight of the world lifted from his shoulders. In a career liberally sprinkled with great moments, the only thing missing was an IPL title. He had won World Cups, Champions Trophies, T20 World Cups, and Test maces. He had won awards of every type, and rewards galore. He had won across countries and continents, as captain and as a player. Only an IPL trophy remained, and Kohli's cabinet is now complete.
It was almost as if Kohli had to endure the hardships to savour the highs, like a cosmic balancing act. So he won the T20 World Cup, but gave up T20Is. He won the Champions Trophy, but had to endure the pain of a first Test series blanking at home, and giving up the Border-Gavaskar Trophy while enduring a woeful run with the bat.
Fate was going to extract its pound of flesh for Virat Kohli to win the IPL. It almost felt like retiring from Test cricket was the price that had to be paid.
That Kohli loves Test cricket was well-known and amply demonstrated throughout this career. Even in his moment of IPL triumph, he acknowledged how important the game's oldest and longest format will always be. He gave up something he loved so much, and in return, he got his hands on a trophy that had eluded him for 18 years.
As the famous line in a Bollywood film goes, 'Sometimes in life, to win something, you have to lose something first. And the man who wins after losing, is aBaazigar.'
And Kohli did it in life, not on celluloid.
Kohli knew that he was going to let himself go, emotionally, as soon as RCB's win was sealed. Punjab Kings needed 29 off the final over, and the first two balls were dots. With Josh Hazlewood bowling, it was all but certain that RCB had their hands around the trophy. Kohli gestured to a beaming AB de Villiers at the edge of the boundary that the tears were coming.
'I told him, 'I'm going to go. It's too much to take.' And when Hoff [Hazlewood] bowled that second ball and it didn't go for six, they needed five sixes. I was gone. I don't know how I held back the tears for the last three balls of the innings,' Kohli said after the game.
Even in that welter of emotions though, Kohli - as he always does - found the perfect words to describewhy this win meant so much, personally.
"It's been 18 long years. I've given this team my youth, my prime and my experience,' Kohli said. 'I've tried to win this every season when I come, give it everything I have. To have this moment is an unbelievable feeling.
'I never thought this day would come. I was overcome with emotion as soon as the last ball was bowled. This means so much to me. I've given each and every ounce of my energy to this team. To have finally won the IPL is an amazing feeling.'
What does the future hold then, for Virat Kohli? He had stepped away from T20 Internationals after India's T20 World Cup triumph, and that win was also something the Indian team had to wait a long time for.
However, it is unlikely there will be a similar announcement after another emotional high. For one thing, the Indian T20I side had readymade replacements straining at the leash to be given an opportunity, and it felt like the natural moment for the old guard - Kohli and Rohit Sharma - to step aside.
That isn't the case with RCB. The team still needs him at the top of the order, in the dressing room, and prowling the field. And there's the small matter of Kohli having rediscovered the T20 batter in himself: capable of exploding at the top or altering his tempo based on situations, while still scoring tons of runs.
Every peak in cricket has been conquered now, but what does a champion do when all peaks are climbed? He looks for new mountains to move. And that is what Kohli will do.