A BATTING LEGEND The evolution of Virat Kohli Rishi Roy Share Tweet

Virat Kohli's stupendous run in international cricket continued as he became the fastest to the 10,000-run mark in ODIs ©AFP

In an era of excessive advertising, we've all come across that archetypal 'transformation' ad. The before and after pictures of a morbidly obese man and his transformation into a male model with square jawlines; or a balding middle-aged man who has metamorphosed into a fashion icon with enviable hair.

And then there are time lapses, in photography, and in pop culture. Case in point: the Academy award-winning movie, Boyhood, was filmed over the course of 12 years (2002-2013) following the male protagonist from the age of 6 to 18. It runs for 2 hours and 45 minutes, so we essentially see a time lapse through his growth spurts, and, inevitably, distinct changes in every scene. However, in a parallel universe, if there was a 12-year long - umm - extended cut of this movie, the before and after shots would seem far more staggering.

For the Indian cricket aficionado, the extended cut started way back in 2008, when a dewy-eyed, zealous teenager by the name of Virat Kohli hit headlines after leading the Indian side to the Under-19 World Cup title. The teenager was fastracked into the senior ODI side as an opener, temporarily replacing one of Sachin Tendulkar or Virender Sehwag - perhaps two of the most feared (not to mention irreplaceable) names in international cricket at the time.

After a decade-long time lapse, we now see a leader of men with a full beard, sporting his predecessor's salt'n'pepper look - more mature and contained than he was a decade ago, but with a familiar zeal and exuberance of youth. To watch TV replays of his older innings, a teenager with patchy facial hair and a semi-mohawk, it dawns upon us just how much he has grown; how secure he has become as a cricketer and how comfortable he now feels in his own skin.

A young, chubby twenty-something walks hastily into the Bellerive Oval following the dismissal of arguably the greatest batsman to have wielded the willow. He faces the dreaded silence that he is now accustomed to, particularly after walking in to bat during the World Cup final of 2011, and replacing Sachin Tendulkar at the crease - an experience he later described as one reminiscent of "walking into a graveyard".

He reaches the pitch, looks overly fidgety and restless, marks his guard, spins the bat like a top in his hands (to calm his anxiety more than anything else) and examines the field. Virat Kohli taps his guard to face his first ball...

It was only a few weeks before this pivotal innings, that he had been reprimanded for making rude gestures at a hostile Australian crowd. Yet, he was the only Indian to score a hundred in the Test series; the only Indian, in a batting line-up that included the famed quartet: Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. The Adelaide hundred had followed an even more impressive 75* at a bouncy WACA, where he had made the first adjustment in his stance: Kohli was now standing taller to get on top of the bounce on the hard Australian surfaces, as opposed to the slow and low Kotla track to which he was more accustomed. Over the course of the two taxing months Down Under, Virat Kohli had learned how to deal with mental disintegration, and it all culminated in a stupendous 133* at Hobart...

His cover drive essentially started out as an off-side glance - as if he aligned his stance and made himself a virtual perpendicular pitch. This, however, made him commit to the line of the ball far too early ©Getty

His Hobart masterclass didn't get off to a particularly fluent start. Armed with a side-on stance, and a crab-walking trigger, with the front foot walking across towards off-stump, Kohli was certainly limiting his range of shots. Contrary to popular belief, Kohli was never a classical, orthodox batsman. He particularly favoured the glance; and boy, did he nail it, even back when he was a rookie. His trigger and his grip were designed for the shot. Even his cover drive was essentially a bottom-handed glance with his wrists running through the line of the ball. He had calibrated his stance as though there existed a virtual pitch perpendicular to the existing one, and he was effectively glancing his cover drive through a virtual mid-wicket. Yet, after a bout of rain and a consequently tacky surface, he was unable to time the ball properly, assuming true bounce and continuing to miscue his whip-drives. These drives would give him one fleeting moment to get his wrists through the line and get it right, instead of a larger margin for error with a check-drive.

The glance came to Virat Kohli naturally; it was a shot he nailed even back in his rookie days ©Getty

Moreover, with a Test series full of short-ball woes behind him, it was a surprise that the Sri Lankans didn't give it a go on that fateful night in Hobart. With his fully side-on stance and the lack of a back-and-across trigger, he gave himself a fraction of a second less to get into a balanced position for the pull, thereby making him vulnerable to the short ball by robbing him of room and leverage.

As the track started to dry out, and true bounce took over, the signature catapult shots started to connect. Malinga received a whooping of a lifetime, and India pulled off an unlikely victory as the modern king of the ODI run-chase announced himself. He had not only kept India pulled off a win, but in essence, dragged a drained Indian side out of the airport.

It was the celebration, though, that caught the eye. In stark contrast to the expletive-laden, absent-minded celebration at Adelaide, this new Kohli removed his helmet, and incredibly, smiled. He closed his eyes and soaked in the applause. It was a change in his mindset that reflected in his response to his hundred; a mental tweak that worked as a master-key to open his mind up to the physical adjustments that are inherently a part of a sport that relies heavily on a large array of playing conditions.

The great Sachin Tendulkar has just walked into the sunset, and India have entrusted Virat Kohli with the coveted No. 4 position in the Test batting line-up. In the first Test at the Wanderers, Kohli started off with an impressive 119 on an initially-seaming track. And a billion souls breathed easy again; India seemed to have found a replacement for the irreplaceable.

However, in a game riddled with statistics, the fact that 15 venomous seaming overs (that loosened up and flattened the Kookaburra threading) had been seen off by the top three, was eclipsed by Kohli's pizzazz. He had made amends to his technique, standing up tall on the inherently bouncy tracks of South Africa and using a forward and across trigger movement, and as a result, pulling better than he used to, despite planting his front foot across in his trigger. How? He was simply quick enough and used the momentum provided by the trigger to swivel into the pull shot. He was simply good enough. But was it sustainable with age?

Left: Kohli pulling with a closed stance, and getting late on the shot. Right: Kohli pulling with a more tall and open stance and nailing the pull to perfection ©Getty

There were flaws, and Kohli was struggling, especially against the pace battery of Steyn, Morkel and Philander. He was still committing to the line of the ball early as a result of his natural O-grip to get his bat down from gully. There were several alarming moments; leading edges over slip, mistimed whip-drives at seaming balls that could have been played more late with a V-grip, or even left alone. Yet, it was clear that he had made amends, partially at least, to address his old slip-ups.

Nevertheless, there was a long way to go.

The dreaded English summer was upon the Indian team in mid-2014. The last time India toured England, they were whitewashed 4-0 in the Tests despite a stellar batting line-up and one of the leading skippers in world cricket. However, the post-Tendulkar India inspired a confidence reminiscent of a clinical Aussie side of the late '90s. A certain expert remarked that Kohli would score at least 3 hundreds in the series, given that he appeared to be the most complete player in the side.

Notice how his bat comes down with a closed face due to the O-grip rather than the V-grip; essentially resulting in an off-side flick. This requires a preempted wind-up, and eliminates the ability to play the ball late ©Getty

However, the loopholes in his technique were laid bare in England that year, as he infamously scored 134 runs over 10 innings. Chaos ensued. In the public eye, he was Anderson's bunny, weak outside off, a flat-track bully - and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Kohli later picked out this nightmare (air-quotes) of a tour as the most productive learning experience of his career.

Virat Kohli hadn't changed much in his game to prepare for England. The bounce was not too steep in the UK, relative to Australia and South Africa at least, so he crouched lower in his stance - essentially ending up with his original stance. He stood on leg-stump, and stepped across, as usual, to get forward and have a go at the ball.

However, in the midst of the packed schedule, glitzy T20 leagues, and meaningless bilateral ODI series, India had overlooked a glaring blemish - Indian players no longer had county stints, and consequently, this new generation of Indian batsmen knew not of the Duke's witchcraft. ***

Virat Kohli was up against perhaps the greatest bowler to have laid a hand on the red Dukes ball, without ever having faced it in his life (in English conditions). He was caught wanting and off-guard. He had missed a trick. India had missed a trick.

The ball, and the bowlers wielding it, were way ahead of him, as the little devil deviated off that deformity of a seam on the lush green wickets of the UK, and ripped through anyone who disobeyed the holy commandment of playing late. That, complemented by the nagging accuracy and swing of Anderson and co., made it a fatal flaw to commit to the line before it was right under the nose.

Moreover, since he was stepping across from leg-stump without a movement of the back foot across, Kohli was off-balance post his trigger movement and his right eye wasn't quite on off-stump at the point of delivery; it was falling across the stumps, which made his off-stump awareness questionable in these conditions. In other words, his line of vision was changing when the ball was on its way, disturbing his perception of the line and therefore, inherently poorly affecting his instinctive response. Furthermore, he was moving towards the off-side and falling over at the moment of delivery; i.e., he lacked physical balance and stability at the most important point of the delivery - the release - giving him an incorrect perspective of the ball - a problem that he has since addressed, albeit, in his own way.

The Parallax Problem

Let's start with the picture on the right. What's the time? Clearly 9:18 (probably AM, given the blinding sunlight bouncing off of the metal rim).

What about the clock on the left, though? Definitely past 7:25. Probably 7:28 or 7:29. Intuitively, it might even be 7:30, given the angle of the photograph. There's no certain way to tell. We call this a parallax error - a perceived change in the position of an object due to a change in viewing angle.

Parallax error - a perceived change in the position of an object due to a change in viewing angle ©Getty

It may be a minor difference, but a difference nonetheless. And cricket is a game of small margins. An inch here, and it's a four, a centimeter there, and it's an edge. You're beaten by a larger margin if the ball misses the outside edge, than if it only just kisses the bat.

In a sport of such small margins, perspective is everything.

Virat Kohli's forte, over the years, has been his ability to get the bottom-hand into play in all his shots around the ground, which has allowed him to impart extra power on his shots. However, an inherent problem with bottom-handed shots is the O-grip. When the bottom-hand forms an 'O' on the bat's handle, the bat is facing the on-side and naturally, it follows that the wrists have to run through the line of the ball in order to execute an off-side shot. Furthermore, to create a stable base for the wrist-work, the batsman would need to extend his arms - in other words, reach out for the ball.

And there goes the virtue of "playing late", right out of the window.

Furthermore, this leads to another hindrance in terms of perception. In batting lingo, a bottom-handed approach forces the batsman to play the ball beside his body, as opposed to in front of it. Similar to the perception of the clock-hands from an angle, the perception of lateral movement while playing beside the body is less accurate while playing with the O-grip, because it triggers an incorrect stimulus and therefore an incorrect instinctive response to the ball.

In contrast, when a batsman plays with his body behind the line - the product of a traditional V-grip, it makes use of a dominant top-hand technique. Yes, a batsman may have incredibly fast wrists and Isao Machii's bullet-slicing hand-eye coordination - but it deteriorates over the years, simply because wrists don't get much stronger over time.

Addressing the Parallax Problem

Case in point, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's technique has gotten a lot more top-handed, with fewer bottom-handed whip-drives and a larger number of punched check-drives. A player may strengthen his biceps and forearms, but the wrist is a joint that deteriorates with age, much like the knee - and it is the efficiency of that joint that is vitally important. Nevertheless, Kohli has found a way to make the bottom-handed check-drives work against the moving ball, even while playing the ball beside himself.

How? He's simply practiced enough, to an extent that his vision has calibrated itself to perceive lateral movement accurately while playing beside himself. As much as Yo-yo tests are important, the old adage of playing as many balls as you can, still stands firm. However, as the powers of his prime begin to wane, he, like several others before him, may need to remodel his game.

The bottom-handed drive beside the body (left) leaves less scope for adjusting to late movement, than the top-handed drive in front of the body (right) ©Getty

Yet, the mavericks of the world have their own way of combating adversity. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, in his prime, actually found a way to impart jaw-dropping power into his bottom-handed shots despite playing close to his body with minimum leverage - defying all odds, and playing the laterally moving ball late enough, and therefore, well enough. There's no reason Virat Kohli couldn't do the same.

India's best batsman had transformed into a flat-track bully overnight.

"I put too much pressure on myself before going to England. As subcontinent players, I don't know why, but you're given these benchmarks to go and perform in different countries, and if you don't do that you're not considered a good player." ***

In an exclusive masterclass with Star Sports, Virat Kohli broke down the flaws he had in his technique during the disastrous tour of England in 2014, and how he sewed them up after the draining and dispiriting Test series.

"It was more about me being desperate to do well in England. When you don't get off to the start that you want to, you start going down mentally and you can't prepare the way you want to."

There was a mental challenge, but mental strength was never a problem with Kohli. Nevertheless, there was a pattern in his dismissals in England. The moving ball. That corridor of uncertainty. The early commitment to the initial line of the ball. The problem wasn't just in the head after all.

"I was expecting the in-swinger too much. That opened up my hip a lot more than necessary in a Test series in England. I kept looking for the in-swinger and I was in no position to counter the out-swinger. I used to stand on leg and my stance was too closed."

More importantly, Kohli widened his feet in his stance after the tour of England, which was evident during India's trip Down Under in December 2014.

"I widened my stance as well, so that I have a good balance when I want to go forward," says Kohli, trying to break down his method to lower his center of mass for better stability at the crease. "Widening my stance really helped me giving that forward press. When I went to Australia, I knew they'd target me in that good area outside the off-stump, so I just cut down the good corridor," he continued. "80% of the balls, I was able to hit, more often than not, because I was about a foot outside my crease and already on fourth stump (thereby negating any movement)."

Moreover, it was an adjustment that was meant for ODIs, which Kohli adapted in Test cricket in a serendipitous turn of events. "The shot I developed past point is something that is really helping me now. It is a really minor change, a very minor adjustment to my grip.

"When I try to hit to point, I just make a small adjustment of opening the bat-face a little bit. I'm picking up the bat like that already," says Kohli displaying a slightly more top-handed grip (not quite the V-grip) as opposed to the O-grip, which he refers to as the 'slog' grip. "That helps me give a bit more room to find the right timing and placement past point. It's not even an inch of adjustment, and it gives you a lot more options in the field." This grip, essentially, allowed him to play an array of off-side shots, but at a microscopic level, also allowed him to play check-drive closer to his body which in turn made him delay his commitment to the line of the ball and increase his margin of error.

The first Test got underway in the aftermath of Phillip Hughes' untimely demise during the first week of December in 2014. Kohli started off with two majestic hundreds at the Adelaide Oval, and went on to score a hundred apiece in Melbourne and Sydney in a sterling series with the bat, as he subjugated the Australian challenges - mental and physical - as though he were playing on his home-strip at the Kotla.

Kohli had started to play the check-drive (albeit beside himself) allowing him to commit late to the line, and therefore giving his cognitive senses maximum time to respond to late movement off the pitch or in the air ©Getty

The bounce at Melbourne, though, was the polar opposite of that seen on a typical Kotla wicket; yet Kohli had the tall stance on point. He was ready for it. To counter the movement that he struggled with in England, he developed a more open stance, and more importantly, a check-drive - this allowed him a shorter backlift and followthrough, and allowed him the luxury of playing late in order to counter the delayed swing and seam movement generated by Johnson and co.

His drives were no longer off-side flicks; they were well-nigh true check-drives, executed with surgical precision. He did fail just once, on the seaming track of Brisbane - which was, once again, perceived as an aberration in the public eye. But this run-hungry devil that was Virat Kohli, had finally made an appearance in the white flannels, as he went on to score 4 hundreds in the series. Virat Kohli, the Test monster, had started a surge that wouldn't cease for a long time.

It would be three years before India played another Test in a SENA country. Kohli, who had the reins of the team now, led his troops to South Africa in the first week of 2018 for their first away Test assignment after an extended home season. South Africa were expected to prepare treacherous seaming wickets - something of a payback for the rank-turners that India churned out in 2015.

The back-and-across trigger towards off-stump allowed Kohli to balance himself more. Furthermore, his back foot going across to the off-stump ensured his eye was on off-stump too, and he could leave anything outside the line. His position at the point of delivery resembles that of a karate stance of perfect balance ©Getty

This was Kohli's first test in conditions conducive to significant lateral movement since England in 2014.

On the seaming tracks of Cape Town and Wanderers, Kohli showed off a new back-and-across trigger movement which allowed his eye to get in line with the off-stump. Paired with the check-drive he had developed for Tests, this resulted in a sharper awareness of his off-stump, which was a huge positive for Kohli. To top it off, the wider stance that he developed in Australia gave him better stability. Paired with the karate-style trigger, or the pouncing position, gave him a fantastic base to play every shot with equal efficiency, as he went on to play knocks of dogged resistance on the South African minefields - the only aberration in an otherwise flawless Test record - against a formidable bowling line-up.

Kohli, however, noted that he was a naturally bottom-handed player and that he had, in fact, tweaked his technique to give himself more time to react to the late movement.

"(In England, 2014), my toe (backfoot) wasn't going towards point, it was going towards cover point. Anyway my hip was opening up initially. And to get the feel of the ball, I had to open up my hip because I was too side-on." said Kohli, scrutinising his stance with Nasser Hussain. "I didn't have too much room for my shoulder to adjust to the line of the ball so it was too late for me to react to anything that swung (or seamed) in front of my eyes (late)."

Kohli then went about trying to develop an antidote to this particular shortcoming. With a natural bottom-hand grip designed for leg-side shots, he had to find a method that could eliminate his vulnerabilities outside the off-stump.

"I made sure that someone was recording me from the side (the point region). I wanted to make sure that my (backfoot) toe was pointing at point's direction (during the trigger movement) rather than the covers," explains Kohli. "That kept my hip nice and side-on (making the stance front-on), and gave myself some room."

The trigger also opened up his shoulder, giving him enough time to react to the late-moving ball. This, in other words, was the introduction of the check-drive into his repertoire, that he could now use after committing late to the line of the ball. Moreover, because of his more open stance after his trigger, he was in a pouncing position that resembled the stance of perfect balance in Karate - perfect for the pull, the sweep, the drive and the cut in equal measure.

Apart from his 153 at Centurion, his 47 at the Wanderers was a fantastic exhibition of the more compact Kohli with a well-nigh airtight defence; the bat was now coming down from first slip rather than gully, ensuring that the bat-face didn't close prematurely in case the ball held up off the two-paced track. He executed this, incredibly, with his bottom-handed O-grip rather than the more purist V-grip. He had checked another box on his way to becoming a more versatile, and perhaps the most complete batsman of his generation.

It was D-Day - August 2, 2018

Kohli found himself back in England in the summer of 2018, leading his nation this time. He had dominated attacks the world over; from a personal perspective, this was his final frontier in terms of away performances. There was a lot of banter in the build-up to the series. He had established himself as a part of the quartet of the world's best batsmen.

Yet, there was a gaping hole in his record - his performance against the red ball in England. Four years of heavy scoring, performances against every team in the world, unprecedented records, and all of that would count for nothing if he didn't perform in the Tests in England.

It was the battle of the modern masters - James Anderson vs. Virat Kohli.

He was welcomed by a raucous crowd when he walked out to bat on Day 1 in Edgbaston - the English fans trying to remind him of his 2014 woes, and a sizeable Indian contingent spurring him on...

Cast your mind back to Adelaide 2011. No brash and heated exchanges, no expletives, just a smile - that smile that lit up Hobart all those years ago. A smile that ruled out all insecurities - outside the off-stump and otherwise.

Kohli took guard. Calm, composed, and focused, he examined the field and went about his business. All the virtues of batting intact, and a refined, compact technique to back his game, Kohli was at the pinnacle of his career in terms of performance and fitness.

Kohli took guard.

He started executing his skills that he had refined over the four years since he had last visited England. The bat came down much straighter, visibly, with a hybrid V/O grip as his unwavering focus kept him going. He got across every ball, left the ball with ease outside his eye-line, even had a lapse as the old foe Anderson got him to edge one to Malan, (who fluffed it) but recomposed himself to carry on.

He knew. He was secure. He wasn't in a fool's paradise, and he knew that those were jitters and aberrations. Now that the lapses were gone, Kohli showed off yet another facet in his Test game: the inside-the-line leave. Particularly with the away-moving ball, he realised that it was safer and quicker to play inside the line of deliveries outside the line of off-stump rather than the more conventional raise-your-arms leave. Particularly with his bottom-handed grip, the bat comes down in an arc from 1st slip towards mid-on, and therefore, it would need a particularly tight line to square him up - a feature of his batting that started out as a weakness had turned into his biggest strength by virtue of his mental strength and his will to learn.

The bat was now coming down from between slip and the wicketkeeper, enabling him to play the inside-the-line leave more easily, and maintaining a zero bat-pad gap throughout the bat-swing ©Getty

He had accepted that his hands weren't quick enough to run through the misbehaving deliveries outside off-stump over a long period of time; so he decided to curb his instincts and play the inside-the-line leave - a feature of his batting that was more prominent in the 2nd Test at Lord's. His off-stump awareness was at its best, as he continued to get his leading eye across to his off-stump and started leaving - wait for it - by playing inside the line.

Nope, not the swat-whip across from gully to mid-wicket, but from first slip towards long-on, so there was no off-chance that the ball would take a leading edge or an outside edge; the bat was following the same line throughout the shot, and not even partially going across the line of the ball. It didn't matter if people thought he was playing and missing. Not to him. He knew. He knew it would work. He knew he was leaving the ball. This was a secure Virat Kohli. He had dug out one of the long-buried scriptures of the game and implemented it in his game - percentage cricket.

For instance, Kohli played and missed at a jaffa at Lord's and then, as on-air commentator Nasser Hussain spotted, he went back and practiced the shot he was supposed to play - the forward defence without the cocked bottom-hand press, or the downwards poke.

No pokes. None. Let it reach. Don't trust the ball.

That, right there, has been the mantra behind his morphed technique - let the ball reach, and play late. These diabolical pitches couldn't be trusted, particularly against seam bowling. Don't trust the ball. If the bowler doesn't know what the ball will do, then the batsman had better be wary.

That, right there, gives Kohli a head-start to become the most perfect batsman of his era - the ability to conquer all conditions, and the fact that he no longer needs to be protected from the new ball by the top order.

If one had to go nitpicking, his dismissal in the first innings of the 4th Test and the second innings of the final one, were flashbacks of the 2014 dismissals - pokes away from the body, drawing Kohli into a blind-zone with the shots, and the lateral movement, spin or pace, drawing him early into the off-side glances. However, these were now clearly aberrations, not the norm.

Kohli's dismissal against Rashid, whip-driving through cover and edging to slip, was a throwback to an old flaw - but this was now an aberration, not the norm ©Getty

A failing top-order handed him the opportunity to prove himself against the ultimate challenge in the UK - Anderson and Broad steaming in on seaming wickets with a brand new Dukes. And boy did he live up to it. It doesn't matter how many runs he scored - he was the best batsman of the tour by a country mile. He knew how to play late now. He knew better than to trust the Dukes ball. And he hadn't gotten out to Anderson - not even once.

It was the first battle since Tendulkar vs. Steyn in Cape Town (circa 2011) that didn't need runs or wickets to draw the viewers' attention - the best swing bowler of all time, bowling as well as he had ever bowled, up against perhaps the most complete batsman of his generation at the pinnacle of his batting powers, who had put his ego aside and treated viewers to a duel for the ages.

It was as if he had told himself, "Why should I have to forego power to tighten up my technique? Oh no, I want the best of both worlds."

Divine Intervention

Kohli credits a childhood hero with giving him a broader perspective of his flaws. "I took some help from Sachin (Tendulkar) as well. He made me realize the importance of approaching the fast bowler the way you approach a spinner. To get on top of the ball, not to worry about the pace or the swing. You've got to move towards the ball, to give the ball less chance to move around." His idol certainly helped see his problem in a different light; the barrier was to simply find a way to reach the ball and negate the movement.

Kohli identified this particular loophole and worked on it tirelessly. "I was batting about 3 hours non-stop everyday. I had cramps in my forearms by the end of the week."

The smile on his face, though, was one that suggested that it was all worth the pain.

Kohli has found a way to maximise the parameters of playing late, imparting power, and even recalibrating his line of vision to achieve never-before-seen standards of batting. That's modern pizzazz leaking into the technique of a batting genius.

A World Beater

Sometimes you're just too close to the canvas to see the picture forming. From a brash and fidgety youngster at the U-19 World Cup, to an all-conquering Test batsman causing Jimmy Anderson headaches in his own backyard, Virat Kohli has certainly left us gaping with his consistency and is well on his way to becoming an all-time great. Furthermore, he has simply confounded us with a manifestation of a more subtle, and perhaps unexpected virtue - a willingness to accept his flaws and constantly improve upon them, which is a rather apt psychological equivalent of the inside-the-line leave, the latest addition to his arsenal in his conquest for batting immortality.

Nail the ones you go after, or let it go past. You know you're leaving the ball, even if the men sitting in the shade beyond the boundary might think otherwise. In a game of small margins, it's apt that an edge is rewarded with a wicket, and a miss isn't. Delaying a commitment increases your chances of succeeding, but decisiveness is key to success.

A non-committal, half-hearted attempt, on the other hand, drives you closer to your demise. Closer to equilibrium. Closer to average. It's better to be poor than to be average; to be a commoner. And cricket is no commoner's game. All or nothing - that, funnily enough, is cricket's version of 'perfect balance'.

Virat Kohli is no longer the fidgety teenager, anxious to prove himself. We've skipped ahead to the end of the time-lapse. The boy has become a man, bereft of any latent insecurities about his place in the team. There are no doubts now. Not only does he belong at the international level, Virat Kohli: the batsman, has transcended into a league of his own - and a nation is thankful for it.

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