THE KOHLI ERA

 

Image Credit- ESPN CricInfo.

Venue- Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot [October 4-8, 2018].

In October 2025, we will be playing our first home test series without Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin. The England tour marked the beginning of a new era under Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir. We did perform great in the tough English conditions. Now it's time to chase glory on our home soil. The 2024 New Zealand Series ended Team India's winning streak at home. Unfortunately, the series not just ended our home domination but also brought us a lot of shame, as we got whitewashed in our home for the very first time. Hence, we will be starting afresh next month when we face the Windies in our home. We need to play like we did in the Kohli era. Now many might ask me, what was the style of play in the Kohli era? I will address the same in this post. 

In the autumn of 2018, the West Indies Cricket Team toured India to play 2 Tests, 5 ODIs and 3 T20 Internationals. The first test of the series was scheduled to take place in Rajkot – a ground often dubbed as Batsman's Paradise. As a result, when Captain Kohli won the toss, he immediately decided to bat first. To everyone's surprise, KL Rahul was dismissed for a duck in the very first over of the innings. However, what followed next was something which everyone knew would happen. Virat Kohli played yet another captain's knock as he scored a majestic 139 off 230 deliveries. Interestingly, he hit only 10 boundaries, which implies that he scored the remaining 99 runs by running between the wickets. The knock, which lasted for nearly 6 hours, was classic Test match batsmanship. Apart from him, debutant Prithvi Shaw and Ravindra Jadeja also completed their tonnes as the Windies struggled for wickets. It was quite unfortunate that Pujara (86) and Pant (92) missed their centuries by the smallest of margins. However, the hosts piled up 649 runs on the board before they decided to declare.

In response, the Windies got demolished as the troika of Ashwin, Kuldeep and Jadeja ripped the West Indian batting line-up. The Indians won the game by an innings and 272 runs as the Windies got battered in both innings. Interestingly, the slaughter continued in the second test as well, wherein we crushed the visitors by 10 wickets and thus won the series 2-0.

However, I will not blame the Windies for their struggle. After all, this was the typical sight of the Kohli era wherein the visitors were crushed and defeated. Unfortunately, we were on the receiving end last year when the Kiwis whitewashed us in our home. As a result, Captain Gill and his men have a huge task ahead. They have made us proud in England. It's time for them to regain the home domination which we enjoyed during the Kohli era.

To watch the Innings of Virat Kohli, Click Here.