This time he did not
pump his fists, this time he did not jump in the air, this time he did not
utter any unparliamentary words to the crowd. It was a serene, unfazed
celebration from Virat kohli as he reached yet another century against Srilanka
last Saturday. He is making it a habit now to score centuries wherever he goes,
making us believe that he is one of the finest prospects that the cricketing
world has produced, in the last decade or so.
I saw Virat kohli first when
he was captaining the U-19 team India in 2008. The team went on to win the world cup in a
last over thriller. The way he ran on the field and hugged his bowler, I saw
glimpses of the fighting spirit of ‘Dada’ and later when I saw him bat in a
four-day match between India-A and Australia in which he and Rohit sharma made
centuries apiece, my instinct said that he is going to become one of the most
promising finds of Indian cricket. Of late, in the recently concluded
India-Australia series, people were telling that Rohit sharma should be given
chance and Virat has to be left out of the test team. But he shut all their
mouth by scoring the most runs in both Test and ODI series.
.
Over
the last decade Indian cricket has produced some fantastic batting talents
starting from Virendar sehwag to Mahendra singh Dhoni. But none of them have
been as consistent in all the forms of the game as Virat kohli is at this point
in time.(He has still not made a concrete point in the international test arena
though)
.
He
entered the international stage without much expectations or any background.
But once he got the opportunity he latched on to every possible chance he was
provided with. If you remember it right, In the world cup team squad selection
there was a tussle between him and Yusuf Pathan. But by his performances Virat
became an obvious pick for the selectors and Suresh Raina had to make way for
him. From then on he never looked back and converted all his hurdles to
success. In fact he made it look like as if he had no hurdles during this
course. But as we all would agree, it is not so easy as said.
.
Arguably
Indian cricket currently has few better talents than him who are finding it
difficult to consistently perform in all stages, which is not a case with
Virat. One thing that differentiates him out from others is that his passion to
perform and the zeal to convert his ability to achievements. Understandably, this
is one good quality that every youngster is supposed to possess. Day by day he
is becoming an idol for all the growing talents not only in cricket but in any
other field as well.
.
Sometimes, we see Virat kohli
as an over-excited kid, making bad scenes and showing immature emotions on the
ground. But we all forget that he is in his early twenties and can learn from
his mistakes. We keep making fun of him and he keeps scoring centuries. More
importantly he is also making a statement to the world that he has developed
his game considerably and learnt to control his emotions substantially. The
last century and the following celebration was one example of his matureness. Mark
my words, my dear friends! He is going to break some of the biggest records of
the cricketing world down the line!
