You want to know the meaning of consistency? Don’t bother looking in a dictionary. Just watch Virat Kohli play. There you are. You can’t get it more consistent than this. He is so consistent that its almost ridiculous, monotonous and boring now.
There goes a saying in cricket that when you are in a good nick, you must make the most of it. You must carry the momentum forward. Well, it is hard to think when Virat Kohli is not in good nick, barring one or two series he has always been in full form through-out his career. And he knows how to make the most of it. He just goes on piling runs. People around him also shine but falter sooner than him, Kohli on the other hand, stands tall and undefeated. He has turned himself into a monster run churning machine, a modern day marvel.
And so, on Friday, Virat Kohli scored yet another double hundred. It’s funny to notice that he had made his first IPL hundred last year playing in his ninth IPL season and then he went on to make four hundreds same season. Same goes with the test double hundreds. It took him six seasons to score his first test double ton, but once there, he has already done it four times in the same season, and counting. In the process, he has become the first ever batsman to make four double hundreds in four straight test series. This is some feat for a young man.
In Australia, just after a horrible test series against England, he had opened his account with a memorable century in Adelaide and even down there, he ended up making four centuries in the series. I am sure the day he will make his first test triple or one day double or T-20 international ton, he will keep doing it thereafter. He is someone who knows how to carry the momentum forward and once he learns the process, he is not very keen to unlearn it anytime soon.
There is a swagger about his aura as a batsman, reminiscent of Viv Richards. There is an assurance about him, that even Sachin Tendulkar never had. He walks on the pitch and goes about his business, almost every damn time. He seems to be playing on a different pitch, in a different zone and tough situations never seem to bother him. He remains calm and unfazed. There is a sense of inevitability about him. What’s more, he likes to take the game to the opposition, he has that “in your face” attitude about him, and he is a fiercely aggressive competitor.
We are going to see a lot from this phenomenon called Virat Kohli in times to come, arguably the greatest batsman of his generation, the first among equals!
