When Virat Kohli entered what, by self admission, was his last ever T20 World Cup campaign, he had one major goal in mind.
Make no mistake he had dreamt of it for long.
Really long.
That goal was, in no way, to take his tally of runs in this international format to a soaring figure.
For he never had to worry about that ambition.
Thanks to years of redoubtable brilliance with the bat, the runs were coming to him, instead of him having to search desperately for them.
Remember; he’s not described the run machine for nothing.
In 2016, in that incredible Eden Gardens game, Kohli took it upon himself to finish Pakistan in the T20 World Cup Super 10 game when he scored 55 of the team’s required 119 runs.
Source– Twitter/ X
In that very tournament, he scored a mountain of runs in a must win game against the Windies at the Wankhede, the beating heart of cricket in India .
Of his team’s 192, which should have ideally been defended, Kohli punched, thudded, smashed and creamed 89 on his own.
Big vital runs never evaded his grasp even half a decade down the line.
In must win games, Kohli’s bat turned into a sledgehammer to bludgeon those who eyed a win over India.
In 2022, he rescued a game nearly lost to Pakistan amid a capacity crowd at the MCG on way to authoring perhaps one of the most significant knocks ever achieved in a T20 World Cup contest.
His unbeaten 82 off 53 will forever be regarded as among the greatest knocks achieved amid intense pressure anywhere in the shortest format.
But having done all of this, it wasn’t really big runs that the great man sought.
His priority lay elsewhere.
And to give a sense of individual statistics with the bat, he entered his 2024 World Cup event, the right hander had no fewer than 4,037 to his name.
As a matter of fact, he was, until a month ago, the man with most T20I runs for India in the format.
Undoubtedly, the primary focus of the batsman who is renowned for ability to focus was to win a World Cup for his country.
That one huge triumph since the unforgettable 2011 hurrah!
That was something he had always desired.
Winning. Winning games, series, big crunch games and most definitely, the World Cup.
However, in over half a decade of having had the great honour of leading the Indian side, a World Cup victory always eluded him.
The leader went without holding the coveted trophy one dreams his career would eventually lead to.
But truth be told, it really neither helped India’s cause nor Kohli’s, which to a true team player is the same thing, when early on into the campaign his bat began to turn silent.
The runs, it became too apparent, went dry.
Not long after walking out to bat in the top order that his bat would turn quiet.
The silence of runs not happening became deafening.
How?
This was felt with excruciating pain when perhaps in the most decisive stage of the contest against the mighty Australia, the former Indian captain took five deliveries and ended with a duck.
Not that things were any different earlier; his scores before the business end of the tournament weren’t helping his team’s cause either.
Prior to the shocker versus the Australians, Virat Kohli took 29 deliveries against Bangladesh to score 37, which remained until June 28 his highest score in the tournament.
But was that all?
As a matter of fact, Virat Kohli scored no more than 24 against another vastly inexperienced team in comparison to India: Afghanistan.
Quite frankly, it wasn’t hard to spot that the great man with well over 100 T20 internationals to his name was struggling in the newfound role of the T20I opener.
His troubles only exacerbated by the fact that he had scored, rather shockingly, another duck before that big game versus the Aussies.
Scoring nothing isn’t too uncommon.
Happens to everyone. Happens to the best out there.
But to score zero against USA, a team that by virtue of experience was more of a hare in comparison to India being an elephant was perhaps inexplicable.
How does a Kohli get out for naught against cricketing neophytes, one may have wondered.
And who would not feel stumped?
However, much like the changing vagaries of the game, something changed.
Just a few hours prior to entering the big final match, the one last game against the spirited South Africans, there came a statement from the Indian captain.
Taking full cognisance of the importance and the need of someone like Virat Kohli in the middle- Rohit Sharma reassured Indian fans craving for something big from the big man by stating his n no uncertain terms- “Virat Kohli is saving his best for this last game!”
Guess what?
Having played much of his career alongside the illustrious achiever from North India, the man from Mumbai echoed perhaps the sentiment of an entire India.
And in the end, Virat Kohli ensured that those who say that cometh the hour… come the man were hardly missing the point.
If there was ever a time that India needed precious runs facing an opponent that unleashed some of the most renowned names in pace and spin with Maharaj and Rabada unleashing fury over India, then this was it.
But to their dismay even a team comprising a Maharaj of cricket couldn’t get the better of the King of batting, the man fondly described as “King Kohli.”
After several hits and misses and successive low scores, truly uncharacteristic to his lofty standards of run-scoring, Virat Kohli, was indeed saving his best for this last game.
Akin to a champion who still kept up the fight despite taking several hits directly to the chin, Kohli’s bat finally began to do the talking when it was most needed.
The sight was interesting, the level of competition co don’t have possibly been any bigger with the need of the hour- utterly urgent.
Much like a tireless pugilist, who is known for getting up each time it seems that fate wants him down and out, here was India’s best with arguably his best knock in a T20 World Cup.
Just when runs were urgently sought, India losing their most in-form batman in Rohit Sharma and that too, rather shockingly for a single-digit score, Kohli stepped in. He stepped in to make it count.
Ball after ball, over after over and spell after spell, Virat Kohli tried his best to hang in there. And the more he hung in there, he ensured a certain tempo to his run scoring.
He first revived an inning that perhaps wasn’t really going anywhere by holding onto to an end with Axar Patel emerging as the quicker scorer.
Later, Kohli took upon himself the huge challenge of upping the tempo of scoring by taking the attack against both Maharaj and Rabada, two of the Proteas’ best.
It’s one thing to score a fifty, but when you score 76 of your team’s 176 runs in a high pressure situation, Kohli reminded the value of perhaps the most under appreciated virtue of a batsman.
Patience and the art of taking an inning to the deep, the latter that was done on this much needed occasion with unmatched focus.
Source– screen grab Disney Hotstar
What was also interesting was that in some ways, Virat Kohli reignited what hitherto has remained an unsettled debate that T20’s are about hitting; maybe not so much about the anchor player.
Did India’s most loved batsman beside Rohit Sharma not anchor the team’s scoring by first ensuring that he set his eye before eventually breaking free?
Where would the Indian inning be had it not seen Kohli putting his head down for 72-run stand?
Was Virat Kohli not biding time intelligently during a testing period so much so that when he notched up his 38th T20I fifty, his strike rate was barely over 100?
Eventually, combining caution with aggression and finding the sweet spot of the bat when most needed, Kohli, the watchful guardian of India’s hopes turned into the bully as the death overs approached.
Image– screen grab Disney Hotstar
In so doing, a man who had hitherto seemed out of touch perhaps touched the hearts of nearly 130 crore Indians.
And rediscovering the lost touch when all seemed lost only to amplify the prayers of a cricket hungry nation; Kohli played a Virat hand with the bat.
But important to reiterate- always for the team’s cause, especially when needed and in this occasion, with his India in dire straits.
All hail the king responsible for perhaps the most gorgeous looking and wonderfully controlled 76 runs by an Indian in a T20I.
Go well, King.
You’ve served T20I’s so well. Now, the format has loved you back.
No doubts about that.
Enjoy holding the trophy in this coveted format.
You’ve longed for it, as have your countrymen for 17 long years since 2007; a first for the nation in thirteen long years.
It’s been a long time coming.
We are glad that you were there to experience the true magic of this moment, Mr. Virat Kohli.
We are even gladder that you were the key lynchpin to India experiencing this timeless piece of magic. A date with history. With you in it, around it, hugely responsible for it!