Virat Kohli is no longer a great Test batsman – he averages a mere 30 since the start of 2020 – and has never had much of a strike-rate for a T20 player, but he remains the all-time master of batting in one-day internationals. His 84 off 98 balls won him the player of the match award in the Champions Trophy semi-final, and powered India into Sunday’s final in Dubai against the winner of the second semi between New Zealand and South Africa.
Kohli’s Test decline accelerated last winter in Australia – 90 runs in eight innings apart from helping himself to a hundred in the second innings of the Perth Test – as he lost discipline in his shot-selection outside offstump. But give him a slow pitch, and a 50-over game, and a run-chase – and Kohli reigns supreme.
The brilliance of this semi-final innings lay precisely in his shot-selection and its maturity. England’s batsmen, apart from Joe Root and perhaps Ben Duckett, would have looked to slog the ball as high in the air as they could. No such vanity of boundary-hitting for Kohli: he kept the ball along the ground, settled for ones and twos, and hit only five fours, no sixes. It was the opposite of Bazball.
Kohli’s words after the match could, or should, be posted on the walls of England’s dressing-room for both Tests and ODIs: “When as a batsman you start taking pride in hitting those singles into the gaps, that’s when you know you’re playing good cricket. For me, it’s about just understanding the conditions, preparing my game accordingly, just rotating strike…and string enough partnerships.” Nothing about “going harder” and blasting the ball as brainlessly as possible.
In ODIs Kohli has the highest batting average, 58, substantially more than the next highest among leading run-scorers, AB de Villiers’ 53. Kohli’s century against Pakistan in the qualifying rounds of this Champions Trophy was his 51st, two more than the second most, the 49 of Sachin Tendulkar. Say what you like about his deliberately barging into Australia’s young opener Sam Konstas last winter, for which he was fined 20 per cent of his match fee, Kohli the batsman retains the humility to remain a master of the 50-over format.
Only another old master, Steve Smith, could cope with Dubai’s slow turner, though it did not turn unduly for India’s four spinners. Varun Chakravarthy, the new mystery spinner, though 33 years old, took the wind out of Australia’s sails by dismissing Travis Head with the first ball that Chakravarthy had ever bowled at him, a googly that Head miscued towards long-off. Thereon Australia were grateful to Smith’s 73 for guiding them to 264, perhaps above par but not much.
One other Australian batsman performed fluently, Alex Carey, who is playing in this tournament as a batsman in his own right, not a keeper. It will be a major surprise if in the Ashes this coming winter Carey does not add to his tally of two Test hundreds. After reaching 61 off 57 balls with calm authority, Carey was run out by a direct hit from Shreyas Iyer, who then anchored India’s run-chase with Kohli.
Even though Pakistan are the hosts, the CT final will not be staged in Pakistan. India’s government will not allow India’s team to play there, so the International Cricket Council – heavily influenced by India, from its chairman Jay Shah downwards – switched all of India’s games, and the final, to Dubai with its turning pitches that are made for India’s four outstanding spinners. At this rate, standby for an ICC announcement that India have already won the toss in the final, and will be allowed to decide whether they want to bat or bowl first.
