Ruthless, fit, fast and unprecedented: How Virat Kohli transformed India's Test cricket fortunes

New Delhi [India], May 13 (ANI): Legendary India batter Virat Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket on Monday, bringing an end to a decorated career where he dominated a variety of regions, conditions and opponents as a batter and captain. During his 14 years as a part of the Test game, the 36-year-old emerged as one of long format's strongest leaders who loved his fast bowlers, advocated strict fitness regimes, demanded nothing but 110 per cent from his frontline batters and broke boundaries as a captain.

A young Virat in his mid 20s gave the world the first taste of 'Captain Kohli' during the 2014-15 tour to Australia, when he launched a rattling assault on Australian bowlers during the first Test at Adelaide, almost chasing down 364 for India, but the middle-order collapsed. Since then till his final game in charge during the 2022 tour to South Africa, never did once he fail to remind the world that his 'New India' was not the one to be messed with, to be bullied and battered into submission and had to be taken seriously as the newest challengers in a highly hegemonic Test cricket environment dominated by the oldest powers, Australia and England.

Statistically, Virat can hold his head high as India's most successful captain, winning 40 out of 68 matches, 13 more than the next-highest, MS Dhoni (27 matches). He lost just 17 and drew 11, with a win percentage as stunning as 58.82. Amongst all teams and captains, only Graeme Smith of South Africa (53), Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh of Australia (48 in 41 wins respectively) led their teams to more wins. His win percentage is only bettered by Waugh (71.93 per cent) and Ponting (62.34 per cent) among those who led their nation in at least 40 Tests, making him an absolute elite-level captain.

With his twin centuries on captaincy debut at Adelaide, he became the only Indian and only second player aside from Greg Chappell to achieve this feat on his captaincy debut, a sign of tremendous batsmanship under the pressure of captaincy.

If Ganguly taught India the cricketing methods, banter and leadership tactics to excel away from home, Virat took it a notch further, helping them develop the guts, spine, body language and aggression that would disintegrate quality Test sides in their own den. From encouraging his bowlers to make England batters feel "hell" at the iconic Lord's venue to having them delivery brutal body blows to slam-banging Australian batters in their own territory, he redefined what aggression was. It was not limited to big hits, a streak of fours/sixes or fiery spells, it was also in the team's mindset. His hunger for world domination seeped into everyone, making them walk down the field with a "win at all costs" mindset.

He led India to 16 Test wins away from home out of 36 Tests, five more than Ganguly, losing 14 and drawing six. In South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia (SENA) countries, where India have a historically weak record, , Virat won seven out of his 23 Tests, lost 13 and drew just three. His seven SENA wins are the most by an Indian captain, with his distant rival MS Dhoni getting three wins.

Including the ICC World Test Championship final 2021, Virat led India in 14 assignments away from home, winning five (two each against Sri Lanka and West Indies and one against Australia) of those. India also lost six series and drew three (including the 2021-22 England series with final Test played under Bumrah's captaincy).

His Test series win against Sri Lanka away from home was India's first win at Lankan shores since their 1-0 win in 1993. He was the first Indian captain to lead his team to a Test series win in Australia, downing them 2-1 in 2018-19.

India also led the England series away from home in 2021 by 2-1 before COVID-19 forced reschedulement of final Test, which India lost under captaincy of Jasprit Bumrah and England levelled the series by 2-2.

Virat turned the entire India into an inviolable fortress, that could not be breached. It was as if with Virat at helm, India had their own World Cup going on at home, taking turns at thrashing each Test team and deying them a coveted series win in India in their catalogue.

In the 11 home series that he captained India, India won ten and dropped just two matches out of 31 matches. India ended 24 matches on victorious side and drew just five. His win-loss ratio of 12.000 is the highest among all Indian captains at home.

The superstar batter thrived under the pressures of captaincy and rarely failed his teammates. He has most runs by an Indian captain in Tests, scoring 5,864 runs in 68 matches and 113 innings at an average of 54.80, with 20 centuries and 18 fifties. His best score was 254*. Overall, across the world, he is the fourth-highest scorer in Tests as a captain, with South Africa's Graeme Smith (8,659 runs in 109 Tests with 25 centuries), Australian Allan Border (6,623 runs in 93 Tests with 15 centuries) and Ricky Ponting (6,542 runs in 77 Tests with 19 centuries) ahead of him. His seven double centuries are most by a captain in Test history.

As a captain at home, batter Virat led from the front, scoring 2,907 runs at an average of 67.60, with 10 centuries and six fifties. His best score was 254*. In away and neutral conditions, he tops the charts again with 2,957 runs in 37 Tests and 65 innings at an average of 46.20, with 10 centuries and 12 fifties. His best score is 200.

In SENA conditions, Virat excelled like no other, scoring 2,162 runs as a captain at an average of 47.00, finding immense success in navigating tough and challenging conditions as evident by his seven centuries and nine fifties. His best score was 153. His distant rival as a run-scorer in SENA is Cheteshwar Pujara, who has scored 1,454 runs with four centuries and seven fifties in 22 Tests, as per ESPNCricinfo.

A man of all people, Virat kept his fast bowlers extremely close to his heart. Under him, India developed and refined a crop of successful fast bowlers like Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Siraj etc who could snap 20 wickets in a Test irrespective of the conditions. They proved coach Ravi Shastri's funny "bhaadh mein gya pitch" (to hell with the pitch) remark every time they came out as they devoured their opponents in a variety of conditions.

Not willing to give his batting a lot of cushion, Virat preferred playing five specialist bowlers mostly, no matter what. Under Virat, away from home, Indian team took 20 wickets on 22 occasions out of possible 35 occasions.

Since 1990, no other Indian team that a Virat-led outfit had a bowling average of less than 30 and a strike rate of below 60 collectively. Kohli's bowlers struck gold every 52 balls and averaged just around 25 runs per wicket. In comparison, the star-studded bowling attack of Australia under Ricky Ponting averaged 29.9 and took wickets every 58 deliveries. Six Indian bowlers picked up 100 or more wickets under Virat, with spinner Ravichandran Ashwin topping the charts with 293 scalps. Only Dale Steyn (347 wickets) under Graeme Smith has more wickets.

The dominant nature of these Test wins is extremely evident by the numbers. Out of India's top ten Test victories by runs margin, seven came under Virat, with the first six of these top 10 wins being under him. India also secured two 300-plus run wins overseas, 318 runs against West Indies at North Sound (2019) and against Sri Lanka (304 runs in 2017 at Galle), as per Cricbuzz.

During the 2019/20 season at home, Virat's men made history by winning four successive Tests by an innings margin, a feat never done before, never repeated ever again later.

Under Virat's leadership, Indian seamers took a chart-topping 591 wickets, being the only Indian captain with 500-plus wickets by seamers in Tests. They took 8.7 wickets per Tests at an average of 26, with the numbers improving to 11 wickets per Tests at an average of 26.55 at overseas conditions. Both of these are parameters place Virat at the very top among all Indian captains to lead in ten-plus away games. The only other Indian captain under whom the seamers averaged less than 30 away from home was Kapil Dev (28.06).

Will the Indian cricket team see a leader as dominant as Virat? Only time will tell. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)