Straight from the heart. Kohli is an aggressive player: aggressive on the field and off the field. He runs aggressively, he dives aggressively, he hits the ball aggressively, and he throws the ball, stops the ball, catches the ball and celebrates aggressively. That is what he is, and that is what makes him so strong. It is his innate quality, and such intrinsic qualities build up the character and eventually the life of a person.

All this makes Kohli what he is today. It put him on the path that has led him towards glory, and we have all witnessed him take giant strides and gigantic leaps in international cricket. We have witnessed him create history and do unimaginable things on the cricket field.

Cricket should not be played defensively. Defensive play brings out fear and fear draws you closer to the inevitable defeat. On the contrary, aggression brings out passion, bravery, assertiveness and a mix of many other emotions that draws you closer to a ray of hope, which is enough to take you to victory. Defensive cricket demonstrates and promotes cowardice whereas aggressive cricket demonstrates bravery and creates moments that must be penned down in history books with gold threads.

As they say attack is the best form of defense. It was proved true once again.

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A team must represent its captain, and a captain must represent their team. Everyone’s mindsets should be on the same page, and that is what produces and nurtures a winning side.

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India is a team of eleven players, a lot of squad members, and a lot of staff members. The problem lies in the simple fact that there is only one Virat Kohli among them. He seems to be the only one of his type among them, and if you think about it, that is what makes him special and unique. That is probably the reason he is above them in every regard. If only there were a few more like him, things could might have been different.

When Virat was given the captaincy, the general opinion was that he would bring a new approach to the Indian Test team, that he would bring an aggressiveness to the side, that he would bring a killer instinct to the side, and that he would bring all of his best qualities to the team. The idea was that the team would be a reflection of his abilities, similar to that of Sourav Ganguly.

All those things are yet to be seen in the Indian Test team. They haven’t been able to replicate what is expected of them. It is true that every individual has his own qualities, but the team should be similar to Virat in attitude. The team should have an aggressive approach, a brave style of play. This has not been the case yet.

There is still a lot of defensiveness in the team, which we saw in the recent England Test that ended in a draw. Apart from Kohli, no one else in the top order came on with a positive intent while chasing 300+ in about 50 overs. Even if Kohli’s intent was to draw the match, he was playing his natural game from the word go and playing his shots, unlike the other members of his team who were simply opting for the defense.

We saw which side ended on a higher note.

The team is not bad. Every player has a role to play. But as a team, they haven’t been able to represent Kohli. They haven’t been able to represent his ideology and his attitude. They haven’t been able to represent aggression, dominance, assertiveness, authoritativeness, calmness and belief. And that is stopping them from becoming a world class side.

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