Virat Kohli leads by example, seals away wins record as skipper..

Virat Kohli

Unlike Clive Lloyd’s West Indies and Steve Waugh’s Australia, Kohli’s team doesn’t turn up and blow the opposition away. They believe in inflicting a slower death.

Watching this India team play is like following a long distance race where the gap between the winner and the others gradually opens up—that’s how Virat Kohli’s team gets the opposition in Tests.

There’s little to separate the sides in the early skirmishes, but as the contest hots up the difference in quality begins to show. Antigua was the latest example of this. India and West Indies were neck and neck till the end of the first innings, but as the game wore on, the superiority in depth and strength in the visitors’ rank became pronounced.

Unlike Clive Lloyd’s West Indies and Steve Waugh’s Australia, Kohli’s team doesn’t turn up and blow the opposition away. They believe in inflicting a slower death.

With the win in the first Test at Antigua on Sunday, Kohli became the most successful India captain overseas, as well as the most successful Indian Test captain—period.

He now has 12 away wins as skipper in 26 matches, surpassing Sourav Ganguly’s overseas record of 11 wins from 28 games. Overall, in 47 Tests under Kohli, India have won 27, lost 10 and drawn 10. In this, he has equalled MS Dhoni’s win record, and surpassed his former captain’s win percentage—Dhoni’s was 57.5, Kohli boasts 68.08.

AS CAPTAIN, A BETTER BATTER..

What makes Kohli so successful? A key component is his ability to lead from the front. The responsibility of leading a side does not wear out his batting, it does just the opposite. Kohli’s incendiary record as a batsman only got hotter as a captain (he averages 61.82 as skipper, and 53.38 overall in Tests).

There have been many captains who have been worn out by the pressure of leading the side. Even a batsman of Rahul Dravid’s stature lost his edge and decided he was better off without the extra responsibility. Ganguly was an excellent man-manager, had a great eye for talent and conviction as leader, but batting became a chore for him as his captaincy progressed. Dhoni was a limited Test batsman to begin with; his strength was the ability to read the game from his vantage point behind the stumps.

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“He has matured into a very good captain; he is calmer and that definitely helps,” says former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar, who as chairman of selectors gave Kohli his international break. “The team is also doing well, and if you keep winning, things are smoother.”

TOTAL CONTROL..

Kohli’s captaincy is about wielding total control over the team. It’s his way or the highway. No one is indispensable, except may be Jasprit Bumrah. Reputations don’t matter. R Ashwin can be benched, Ajinkya Rahane can be omitted, and Rohit Sharma, having just scored five ODI hundreds in the World Cup, can’t force him when it comes to Test selection.

Kohli can do that because he is invariably the best performing batsman in the team.