Rejuvenated Kohli ready to conquer new peaks

Dubai: Seldom does a Virat Kohli knock in a winning chase leaves one wanting for more. But his 84 that guided India to a semifinal victory over Australia in the Champions Trophy here had that touch of incompleteness to it. A familiar Kohli hundred on Tuesday would have been his 25th three-figure mark while hunting down a target. But the master would not be too displeased about the knock he eventually managed as he ticked many boxes.

Here are the two most important of them. Box No.1: He tamed spinners, an Achilles Heel that haunted him for long, and more recently exploited by England’s Adil Rashid and Bangladesh’s Rishad Hossain. Box No.2: The fifty was full of determination to defeat an opponent who had given India and him several heartbreaks in the past. Through it, he, perhaps, was conveying his readiness to battle on for some more time, conquer some more peaks.

But that has not come without its share of hard work. Kohli had to spend an extra two hours at nets to polish his skills ahead of the match against Pakistan after he was dismissed by Hossain against Bangladesh.

Subsequently, he negated Pakistan’s Abrar Ahmed, but Adam Zampa is in a different league as a white ball leg-spinner. The slow Dubai pitch that slows down even more during the second half would have given more zing to Zampa’s craft. Since their first meeting in 2017, Zampa had dismissed Kohli five times in white ball formats, and counterattack has been Kohli’s preferred way to nullify the Aussie leg-spinner. Before the Champions Trophy match, Kohli had made 264 runs off 245 balls against him at a strike-rate of 107. But the nature of the pitch here demanded a different approach from Kohli as he ticked off Zampa, taking 23 off 24 balls.

He also made 12 runs off nine balls against Tanveer Sangha. It was not spectacular but effective in a tricky chase of 265, even though he eventually fell to Zampa. But much after the team’s job was done. India head coach Gautam Gambhir appreciated the way Kohli planned his chase. “He is a phenomenal one-day cricketer. He knows how to plan whether he is batting first or chasing and he adapts to the conditions really quickly and that is why experience and high-quality players are very important,” Gambhir pointed out.

“That is the reason why he has got that kind of record in one-day cricket and I hope he continues to do that in the future as well,” said Gambhir. Steve Smith, a contemporary of Kohli with whom he had a few run-ins and also shared many highs, shed light on how the Indian works his way while chasing a target. “He’s arguably the best chaser the game has seen. He’s done it numerous times against us. He controls the tempo of the game really well, plays to his strengths and takes the game deep. I thought he played really well again,” said Smith.