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Time of India
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
Captain Virat Kohli, the 'Tiger' that burnt bright
Virat Kohli Virat Kohli 's decision to rely on out-and-out pace was a leaf out of the young Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi's decision as captain in the early 1960s to bank on a magnificent battery of spinners "Let's give them 60 overs of hell!" Years down the line, when historians will revisit Indian Test cricket in the 21st century, Virat Kohli's war cry at the Lord's in 2021 will ring in their ears. That London summer afternoon defined the Kohli-way — a new era of self-belief when India refused to throw in the towel even when the chips were down. Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! The team, after a miraculous ninth-wicket partnership between Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami on the fifth morning, could have veered towards the safer confines of an honourable draw. But the captain didn't believe in settling for a draw, even while playing overseas. The 151-run win on that day was the highest point for Kohli the captain — arguably a more remarkable figure than Kohli the batter, at least in Test cricket. Who's that IPL player? That day, the basis of that confidence to push for a win at Lord's lay in the belief that Kohli had in his pace quartet of Bumrah, Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Ishant Sharma. It was an attack that was meticulously curated by Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri, with the help of bowling coach Bharath Arun. In many ways, Kohli's decision to rely on out-and-out pace was a leaf out of a decision that the young Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi took as captain in the 1960s, to rely on a magnificent battery of spinners to churn out results. Poll Which aspect of Kohli's captaincy do you find most impressive? His ability to unify the team. His focus on fitness. His aggressive mindset. In Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna and BS Chandrasekhar, Pataudi had a supremely gifted trio. S Venkataraghavan, who made his debut in 1965, was made a regular part of the spin attack as India played with four spinners for the first time at Edgbaston in 1967. Playing in tandem, the quartet restricted England to 298 and 203, only to be let down by the batters. But they laid a marker that was to define Indian cricket for the next decade, aptly summed up by Kapil Dev in Tim Wigmore's Test Cricket: A History: "Almost every Indian bowler in that era wanted to be a spinner." Virat Kohli retires from Test cricket after 14 years Half a century later, in 2018, Kohli took the call to play four pacers in Perth. Much like Pataudi's Edgbaston experience, India lost that Test despite the skipper scoring a magnificent century, but India had well and truly taken a step in a different direction. As Prasanna and Bedi have insisted that "playing under Tiger was no strain", the likes of Ishant Sharma and Shami flourished under Kohli. But the captain's biggest contribution will be the 'Kohinoor' he gifted to Indian Test cricket — Bumrah, the pace parallel of the maverick leggie Chandrasekhar. The slinger was superb in white-ball cricket, but no one believed he could last the rigours of Test cricket till Kohli and Shastri decided otherwise. The duo nurtured him and introduced him to Test cricket in South Africa in 2018. It would prove the birth of the 'Bradman of pace bowling' — termed by Adam Gilchrist — as India took their first step towards world domination in red-ball cricket, culminating in two back-to-back series wins in Australia. Explained: Why Rohit Sharma retired from Test cricket Unifying a team for a common cause Pataudi, as Indian captain, had brought in a unification code to a largely disjointed team. "Our side was dominated by players from the West and South and it was difficult for a Punjabi like myself to be accepted. But it was Tiger who gave us the feeling of Indian-ness," Bedi says in Wigmore's book. Fifty years down the line, Kohli, too, tried to unify the team through a common code — fitness. He learnt early that to excel in 21st century cricket, fitness had to be of a different level. He brought changes to his lifestyle and diet to himself become the lean, mean machine. He also tried to instill the same in his team, to follow a similar mantra. It meant that the envelope was pushed. If the pace bowlers, on the final session of the final day, were ready to bowl 140 km/hr, a lot to do with the culture of fitness that was brought in by Kohli. Bombay Sport Exchange Ep 5: Shane Watson on IPL, India-Australia rivalry | Part 1 A two-hour talkathon Kohli didn't mind the odd exchange of words with the opposition on the field, but there's one instance when his anger was channelized towards his own team. According to a member of the management, Kohli was livid with the way India capitulated in the first Test in Cape Town, chasing 208. "Vernon Philander destroyed us with his medium-pace in the second innings, Kohli couldn't take it anymore. We never heard him speaking as harshly as he did to the team members — for about two hours on that day. He made it clear that such a performance was just not acceptable. By the time we got into the team bus, we knew something had to be changed," a team member told TOI. Kohli walked the talk in the next Test in Centurion with a century, albeit in a losing cause. But India won the third Test on a minefield in Johannesburg. The first step towards world domination had been taken. Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings. Catch Lovlina's story unfold on Game On. Watch here!
Time of India
13-05-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
Captain Kohli, the ‘Tiger' that burnt bright
STRIPES... (Above) India captain Pataudi (fourth from right) leads his team for a practice session ahead of the Lord's Test against England in 1967. Photo credit: Getty Images "Let's give them 60 overs of hell!' Years down the line, when historians will revisit Indian Test cricket in the 21st century, Virat Kohli 's war cry at the Lord's in 2021 will ring in their ears. That London summer afternoon defined the Kohli-way — a new era of self-belief when India refused to throw in the towel even when the chips were down. The team, after a miraculous ninth-wicket partnership between Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami on the fifth morning, could have veered towards the safer confines of an honourable draw. Kohli, Ishant and teammates celebrate an England wicket during the 2021 Lord's Test. (Photo credit: Getty Images) But the captain didn't believe in settling for a draw, even while playing overseas. The 151-run win on that day was the highest point for Kohli the captain — arguably a more remarkable figure than Kohli the batter, at least in Test cricket. That day, the basis of that confidence to push for a win at Lord's lay in the belief that Kohli had in his pace quartet of Bumrah, Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Ishant Sharma . It was an attack that was meticulously curated by Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri, with the help of bowling coach Bharath Arun. In many ways, Kohli's decision to rely on out-and-out pace was a leaf out of a decision that the young Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi took as captain in the 1960s, to rely on a magnificent battery of spinners to churn out results. In Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna and BS Chandrasekhar, Pataudi had a supremely gifted trio. S Venkataraghavan, who made his debut in 1965, was made a regular part of the spin attack as India played with four spinners for the first time at Edgbaston in 1967. Playing in tandem, the quartet restricted England to 298 and 203, only to be let down by the batters. But they laid a marker that was to define Indian cricket for the next decade, aptly summed up by Kapil Dev in Tim Wigmore's Test Cricket: A History: 'Almost every Indian bowler in that era wanted to be a spinner.' Half a century later, in 2018, Kohli took the call to play four pacers in Perth. Much like Pataudi's Edgbaston experience, India lost that Test despite the skipper scoring a magnificent century, but India had well and truly taken a step in a different direction. As Prasanna and Bedi have insisted that 'playing under Tiger was no strain', the likes of Ishant Sharma and Shami flourished under Kohli. But the captain's biggest contribution will be the 'Kohinoor' he gifted to Indian Test cricket — Bumrah, the pace parallel of the maverick leggie Chandrasekhar. The slinger was superb in white-ball cricket, but no one believed he could last the rigours of Test cricket till Kohli and Shastri decided otherwise. The duo nurtured him and introduced him to Test cricket in South Africa in 2018. It would prove the birth of the 'Bradman of pace bowling' — termed by Adam Gilchrist — as India took their first step towards world domination in red-ball cricket, culminating in two back-to-back series wins in Australia. Unifying a team for a common cause Pataudi, as Indian captain, had brought in a unification code to a largely disjointed team. 'Our side was dominated by players from the West and South and it was difficult for a Punjabi like myself to be accepted. But it was Tiger who gave us the feeling of Indian-ness,' Bedi says in Wigmore's book. Fifty years down the line, Kohli, too, tried to unify the team through a common code — fitness. He learnt early that to excel in 21st century cricket, fitness had to be of a different level. He brought changes to his lifestyle and diet to himself become the lean, mean machine. He also tried to instill the same in his team, to follow a similar mantra. It meant that the envelope was pushed. If the pace bowlers, on the final session of the final day, were ready to bowl 140 km/hr, a lot to do with the culture of fitness that was brought in by Kohli. A two-hour talkathon Kohli didn't mind the odd exchange of words with the opposition on the field, but there's one instance when his anger was channelized towards his own team. According to a member of the management, Kohli was livid with the way India capitulated in the first Test in Cape Town, chasing 208. 'Vernon Philander destroyed us with his medium-pace in the second innings, Kohli couldn't take it anymore. We never heard him speaking as harshly as he did to the team members — for about two hours on that day. He made it clear that such a performance was just not acceptable. By the time we got into the team bus, we knew something had to be changed,' a team member told TOI. Kohli walked the talk in the next Test in Centurion with a century, albeit in a losing cause. But India won the third Test on a minefield in Johannesburg. The first step towards world domination had been taken.
Telegraph
02-05-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Cricket authorities in England oblivious to horrors they are condoning
Reading my Telegraph Sport colleague Tim Wigmore's new and authoritative book Test Cricket: A History was an ideal psychological preparation for the new Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. He stresses that there have always been unsavoury aspects to what he several times calls the 'brutal' game of Test cricket. They were there right from the late Victorian period: cheating, gamesmanship, financial greed, racism, classism and, where some of the poor professionals were concerned, a philosophy of the devil taking the hindmost. A few Test cricketers became, and remain, legendary, and reaped the profits of that even in eras before the modern obsession with money: Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Bradman, Compton, Sobers and Gavaskar. Many others wound down their lives in obscurity, relentless toil and an overdose of memories, and some ends were tragic. These themes are all too visible in the 2025 Wisden, especially when one reads memories of poor Graham Thorpe; though the accusations of sharp practice these days are more focused on the people who run the game rather than those who play it. Wigmore refers candidly to the main commercial developments in world cricket that have pushed the once-dominant form of the game increasingly to the margins, but avoids extremes of optimism or pessimism. Lawrence Booth, Wisden 's editor, does not equivocate, and as such reminds us that someone trying to write a history of Test cricket in a quarter-century's time may merely have to write a sad concluding chapter to Wigmore's book. Booth refers to the recent translation of Jay Shah from running the BCCI – India's national governing body – to running the ICC as demonstrating that 'cricket gave up any claim to being properly administered' when it happened. Some of us have been highlighting cricket's moral decline for years, and it may be too late to reverse it now. Modern cricket, thanks to the dominant influence of T20 and its ruthless projection and promotion by commercial forces in India, now works relentlessly against the interests of Test cricket. This could not matter less to those to whom cricket is plainly and simply a means of generating wealth. And those people, as Booth points out, now run world cricket, and run it to serve their interests. And for the moment, that means responding to an insatiable demand for T20, whatever the side effects. Wigmore tells the story of a game that for most of its history was run by white men, many of them public school and Oxbridge-educated, and members of MCC. He sensibly avoids the absurdities of what twisted academics call 'decolonising' the subject of Test cricket. In the 1870s the societies in which first-class cricket – the natural breeding-ground for Test cricketers – had been developed were England and Australia, their cultural affinities taking them in lock-step. It was natural that they should lead the development of the game; and natural that another territory with a large community of people of British heritage, what became the Union of South Africa, should become the third partner in international contests. Along the way there was evidence of racism; indigenous Australians, however good they were, were not picked for their country; Lord Harris may or may not have been responsible for stopping Ranjitsinhji from playing for England sooner than he did; no black man captained the West Indies until Frank Worrell in 1960, more than 30 years after they joined the Test circuit; and of course much of world cricket, including MCC, tolerated the Apartheid policies of South Africa until the break finally came in the 1970s. Now, the boot is on the other foot: the old imperial masters are out, and those from the jewel in the crown of the former empire now dictate terms. Jay Shah's father, Booth notes, is 'the second most powerful politician in India', which helps explain much about the motive forces behind cricket not just in that country, but, now, around a world where India runs the game. Booth derides the ICC as having become merely 'an events company', with a 'craven' attitude to international fixtures arranged entirely to suit India. He calls the World Test Championship 'a shambles masquerading as a showpiece'. Its next final is to be played at Lord's in June, between South Africa and Australia, and the shambles element concerns the unequal paths the two sides have taken to Lord's. Australia have played tough opponents in long series; South Africa easier ones in shorter series, while many of its players have pursued the numerous T20 franchises around the world that are India's gift to the modern game. Wisden takes a remarkably charitable view of another franchise that, incomprehensibly, businessmen seem hungry to invest in: The Hundred. Has anyone outside Britain shown the slightest interest in buying a Hundred franchise for their country? No, because they already have T20, and dozens of them. Happily, it is nobody's problem but the England and Wales Cricket Board's. They are welcome to it. Booth is right to turn a fierce spotlight on Shah. He could redistribute money to poorer countries struggling to stay in Test cricket, but without a coherent international marketing plan, and the revival of first-class cricket in those countries, it will not work. But what will especially make it fail is those controlling international cricket allowing T20 to dominate schedules and have first call on the pool of top players. As some of us have written until we are blue in the face, this will never be resolved until T20 is entirely separated from first-class cricket, and Test cricket. If Shah does not grasp that problem there will be no need for any more histories of Test cricket, and the next few Wisdens will have plenty more to object to. Meanwhile, the main cricket authorities in this country seem oblivious to the horrors they are condoning. They will one day learn, the hard way, that in a business – as opposed to a game – the complicity of stupid people seldom brings rewards.
The Guardian
16-04-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
In defence of the draw: why Ben Stokes and England should take note
'A tie is like kissing your sister,' Edward J Erdelatz said to the New York Times in 1954. Erdelatz was the United States Navy's head football coach and his side had just drawn 0-0 against Duke University. 'No one asked the mild spoken navy coach to explain,' the report adds. Well, quite. But sister or not, everyone knew what he meant. Erdelatz's unique take on the merits or otherwise of not winning are ingrained in American sports where a Lombardian win-at-all-costs mentality prevails. Try explaining Test cricket to an American sports fan, they say, with a wry chuckle – the fact that two teams can battle it out for five full days and in the end, there is not necessarily a winner. Good luck, they smirk. Adelaide 1961? You may as well be describing the plot of Christopher Nolan's Memento to a toddler. Old Trafford 2005? More chance of a cider-addled bee getting to grips with quantum theory. They do not get it, be gone with your quaint English ways, five days and no winner. That's crazy, man. And yet draws are intrinsic to Test cricket, they are written in its DNA – a double helix in the shape of a deadlock. Draws speak to its beguiling and maddening qualities, a testament to the game's downright peculiarity. That a side can battle back from a point of seemingly no return to pull off the heist of shared spoils, drop anchor, defy logic, battle against their opponents' desire, their own self-belief, against conditions under their feet and above their heads, against time itself. This makes the game what it is, why it is called what it is called. Even when you are on top, it is still really hard to finish a side off and win a Test match. In Test cricket's nigh-on 150-year history of more than 2,500 matches, a third have ended in draws. Now, there are good draws and bad draws, or more precisely, boring draws and exciting draws. Unfortunately, the former are much more prevalent. 'In the first 2,573 Test matches, from 1877 to 2025, just 84 were won by a margin of fewer than 30 runs, or three wickets or fewer: 3%, or barely a Test every two years.' Tim Wigmore's new book Test Cricket: A History charts a narrative history of the longest format with contributions from the game's biggest characters. It is a riveting and lovingly researched tome thrumming with detail, anecdote and incisive facts such as the one above. As Wigmore says, an exciting draw in a Test match is all well and good, but it turns out those thrilling stalemates that live long in the memory are rarer than a platinum filling on a poultry farm. Anyone who has watched an interminable draw play out will know that they come with their own particular kind of soul-sapping non-energy. Ever played in a match where a side signpost they are settling for a draw from the early stages? The worst. Long hours grazing in the field often come with a side portion of existential rumination at the best of times but spending half your weekend watching a middle-aged marketing manager block as if they have a glock to the temple with the sun barely past the yard arm is enough to make anyone ponder the futility of life, never mind put them off the game for good. Ben Stokes clearly feels the same. He hates draws. His Test side have succumbed to one in his 32-match tenure and that was the washed out Ashes Test at Old Trafford in 2023. The England Test captain's win or bust mantra is born out of a belief that there is nothing to fear in failure and therefore no need to even entertain playing for a draw. There is a twisted logic to this approach, it is one that has allowed Stokes's side to pull off some incredible victories from seemingly impossible positions. It has also meant they have capitulated to some of the heaviest and most embarrassing defeats in England's history. Last year's thumping losses to India in Rajkot and New Zealand in Hamilton, here's wincing at you. 'We're in the entertainment business, no more draws,' Joe Root chirped to Nathan Lyon before the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston in 2023. Lyon parroted the line back to his teammates in the Australia dressing room moments later to a mixture of mocking headshakes and shrugs. England's desire to entertain tipped too far in that Test, Stokes's day one declaration with England on 393 for eight with Root playing in princely fashion came back to bite them on day five when half an hour more of runs Root could have led to England winning the first Test or at the very least not lose it. In a five-match series these things tend to count. A prime piece of whataboutery, perhaps, but herein lies the rub ahead of two huge series for Stokes's Test side. Are England's fans more entertained by a loss, albeit played in a rousing fashion, or would they prefer to see their side grind and guts out a draw once the opportunity to win has subsided? England have adapted since those wild-eyed early days of Bazball, but there is room for further nuance still. England win a lot under Stokes, but they lose plenty too. Nineteen plays 12 at last count. If they find themselves with their backs against the wall against India or Australia, are they willing to knuckle down and spend two days saving a match rather than going down in a ball of flames? Which is the braver option? The most entertaining watch? Which, crucially, would the fans prefer? I think we know the answer to all of those questions. A draw or two in the next two series could well go a long way to determining the overarching success or failure of the Bazball project. Time, then, for Stokes to rethink when it comes to the draw and embrace the grey in an increasingly black and white world. Pucker up Ben, it might not even be as bad as you think. Scrapping for a draw when the chance of victory has reasonably vanished is one thing, but settling for one when a win is still in play is another. Dom Sibley's glacial 60 not out off 207 balls against New Zealand in the Lord's Test of 2021 remains the only Test I have walked out of in a huff. With fans starting to trickle back into the stands after the Covid lockdowns, Kane Williamson gamely declared on 169 for six to set up an exciting finish. England were set 273 runs for victory in 75 overs, the carrot was well and truly dangled. Joe Root's side never even looked like going for a nibble. The game finished in a dull draw and a few boos even rang around HQ. I could hear them from the pub. On the flipside, as a teenager I sat on tenterhooks all day at Old Trafford watching Ricky Ponting play one of the finest innings of his career in repelling Flintoff, Hoggard, Harmison and Jones for more than seven hours. Punter was strangled for 156 but Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath somehow survived the final, pulsating 24 deliveries. Memorably, Michael Vaughan gathered his spent and frustrated team together on the outfield and pointed to the opposition balcony. 'For the first time ever we can see an Australian team celebrating the draw.' On Tuesday night in the Lord's Long Room, at the annual MCC/Cricket Society Book of the Year event, Tanya Aldred received the Stephen Fay Award, a special award given for contributions to cricket journalism. Here's the citation from Robert Winder, chair of the judging panel: 'Stephen Fay was a distinguished author, journalist and newspaper editor, a great friend of cricket, literature and journalism. This year we wanted to honour the last of those aspects of his life and pay tribute to an outstanding member of the community that keeps cricket alive by writing about it in newspapers and magazines. 'The winner of this year's award, Tanya Aldred, is a tremendously distinguished leader of the group that keeps the flame going. On the day she received the award she was maintaining the Guardian's county blog, and a thrilling end to play at a number of grounds meant she was busy filing her roundup until just moments before the award was presented.' Tanya's children's book with Moeen Ali, The Legend of Sparkhill, was nominated for the MCC/Cricket Society Book of the Year award in 2023. This year's MCC/Cricket Society Book of the Year went to Simon Lister for his Frank Worrell biography: Worrell: The Brief but Brilliant Life of a Caribbean Cricket Pioneer. TMS and Sky colleagues Henry Blofeld and Geoffrey Boycott chat over tea at a soggy Trent Bridge during the July 1991 Test between England and West Indies. The tourists eased to a nine-wicket victory. Ali Martin gets his chat on with Somerset's Tom Banton to discuss the secret behind his epic triple century. And Gary Naylor has all your latest County Championship talking points as Warwickshire, Sussex and Nottinghamshire lead the way while fancied Surrey, Essex and Somerset remain winless. … by writing to To subscribe to The Spin, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
