Another Day, Another New Feat For Run Machine Virat Kohli!

For a batsman who has been scoring runs comprehensively for his country for over a decade and a half, with much gusto and minus any complaints, Virat Kohli is a symbol of perpetuity. He’s just about the perfect answer to the age old query the die-hard Indian cricket fan had been nursing ever since Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement.

Whether we would get to see a batsman as perfect and adept as Sachin again, who could make runs come what may?

And while Tendulkar may always remain the sentimental favourite for a generation that was used to seeing batsmen score in testing conditions, at a time where cricket had not yet become more of a batsman’s game, there’s no plausible area where Virat falls short today.

He’s truly no less than Sachin, if not more than the modern master of Cricket, one we shall continue to swoon over.

It’s one thing, as they say, to score lots of runs. But it’s something entirely different to score consistently and in every format of the game.

A few hours back, on his way to yet another timely and entertaining IPL fifty, Virat Kohli went past another milestone, which yet again compels us to focus on his sheer batting greatness.

From the boy who had class to the man whose batting is classy, Virat Kohli epitomises the daring and imperturbability that the modern batsman must possess.

Though surely, he and his Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis would have liked the team to be on the right side of the result, Kohli’s knock emerged a valiant one.

The crowds were entertained. RCB were in high spirits. Though, Lucknow weren’t

An enthralling knock of 61 from just 7.2 overs spent at the wicket enabled Faf to hold on to an other end while the fireworks were largely Virat Kohli’s responsibility.

In so doing, upon reaching his 46th IPL half century, Virat Kohli became the fourth-highest run scorer in T20 cricket.

He has already amassed 164 runs in the ongoing edition of the IPL, which is bound to continue until the end of May. But rather importantly, through yet another fiery knock, the former RCB captain joined an elite list of the highest T20 scorers to which greats like Chris Gayle, Shoaib Malik and Kieron Pollard belong.

Virat Kohli, has quite simply, expanded the envelope for greatness where batsmanship is concerned. These runs are actually a testimony to not only his fitness; but also that lion-hearted appetite at scoring regularly, which given the sheer quantum of cricket being played today, is no small achievement.

What must be afforded just as much attention as his overall batting stats, truth be told, is his success as an opener in T20 cricket.

How a batsman who was ever used to coming in at number three donned the responsibility of playing his hand as an opener is quite commendable.

To his critics and most of them arguably being from the other side of India’s border, the key debate in which to sideline Kohli would be to compare his cover drive to that of Babar Azam’s; when in reality, there’s so much more to admire about both the batsmen.

The only thing, however, that Virat Kohli would really wish for is for those heaps of runs for Bangalore to come to the rescue of his side that hasn’t on date, lifted a single IPL title.

But the tournament is long and King Kohli has only just begun to wield his bat.