Friday 26 / April / 2024
THE image of a dazed, scared flight attendant sitting on a bench waiting for help at Zaventem airport with her smart uniform torn revealing her undergarments and blood trickling down her cheeks after the March 22 Brussels international airport attacks and the picture of Australian skipper Steve Smith standing alongside Indian captain MS Dhoni singing praise of Virat Kohli after the Mohali match on Sunday have something in common.
They defined the tragedy agonizingly. They summed up the helplessness of the victims, as well, disturbingly. Neither the bleeding lady nor the humbled man had a choice to turn their back on the camera after the pain and horror they had just gone through.
Not sure if the retired Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson had watched the post-match chat Sanjay Manjrekar had with the two captains where Smith ended his every reply with “Virat played an unbelievable knock and he’s done it for a long time”. Johnson’s tweet a day before the match about Kohli, “Love it!! Went missing in WC semi last year when it counts”, sounded silly even before a ball was bowled in the Mohali match, but after the dust settled down on Sunday night and as Smith struggled to say a few words without mentioning the name of Kohli, the banter from the retired fast bowler who didn’t count the Indian vice-captain among the best five batsmen in the world reeked of pure, insane hate. Chances are that Johnson may have switched off the TV at the end of the 19th over when Kohli left the simple task of scoring just four runs off six balls to Dhoni, after plundering 32 (off 11 balls) runs — of the required 39 from 18 balls — all alone.
After two famous run chases, even the unrivalled master of hot pursuits hints at frustration building up within him. You don’t like these situations too much, he says, but is anyone in the Indian dressing room listening?
Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have now failed more regularly than they succeeded in giving India a good start which would have made Kohli step in and enjoy his game. One of them would have been already sitting out had India’s win-loss record in the Asia Cup or in the ongoing T20 championship not been just as good as it was, despite the top order virtually falling apart almost always. Dhoni doesn’t favour the idea of chopping and changing, but he would have been forced to look for options then.
Another player who owes his place in the team to the success of Kohli is Suresh Raina. He looks horribly out of form, and despite luck smiling on him now and then in the form of dropped catches and mishits landing just short of fielders, he seems to be helpless to swim out of trouble. He is not a great deep fielder with a strong shoulder, and even his close-in skills are now diminishing.
Yuvraj almost got Kohli out on Sunday when his twisted ankle forced him against responding to calls for quick runs, forcing Kohli to try risky shots. When the team lose wickets early in a match, the last thing an in-form batsman needs to cope with is having a guy struggling to get himself back in form and starting to limp and stumble for company.
Guys like Dhawan and Raina have enjoyed the goodwill of the team for long, and it’s now time to give them some rest, perhaps. It’s not a good idea to wait for Kohli to fail to do the simple fix that could avert a disaster. The increasing burden Kohli has now been carrying without grumbling on his shoulders match after match could soon have a negative impact on the greatest gift, after Sachin Tendulkar, to Indian cricket.
What we heard at the post-match chat at Mohali, that “you don’t’ like these situations too much”, is a hint of helplessness being felt by Kohli. Now that Dhoni has worked out the number—“we are batting at 65 percent, barring Virat” — it’s interesting to watch out how and if the Indian captain would do something to make things happen, or just wait for something to happen.
Under the circumstances, flipping the coin banking on the old belief that logically the chances are equal might not be wise.
The writer is a freelance contributor based in India. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman
