Cricket legend Allan Border says Virat Kohli’s decision to head home for birth confirms times have changed
Australian cricket legend Allan Border has expressed his surprise at Virat Kohli’s decision to abandon India’s tour midway to be present for the birth of his first child.
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Australian cricket legend Allan Border has expressed his surprise at Virat Kohli’s decision to abandon India’s tour midway through the Test series to be present for the birth of his first child.
Kohli will feature in the six white-ball fixtures starting later this month and the first Test in Adelaide before flying home to India to where wife Anushka Sharma is due to give birth in early January.
Border told Fox Sports News he’d been caught off guard by the Kohli announcement, revealing a recent conversation with Indian great Sunil Gavaskar who had insisted his availability all series was in no doubt.
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“I’m a little surprised by the news because I was talking to Sunny Gavaskar not so long ago and he said to not worry and ‘tell your fans not to worry about Virat Kohli — he’ll be there for the whole summer’,” Border explained.
“I’m a little surprised he’s heading home, but it’s just the way of the world now. You want to be there for the birth of your children.”
Border missed the births of two of his four children, including his first — son Dene — when he was in the Caribbean on a Test tour.
Fellow champion Australian batsman Matthew Hayden nearly missed the birth of daughter Grace — before being talked out of playing a one-day clash against Pakistan in Melbourne by a good friend.
“He said ‘mate, you’re mad, surely your heart can’t be in it … just go home’. And he was right,” Hayden told The Daily Telegraph.
Hayden jumped on a flight to Brisbane, arrived at 7pm that night and was there when wife Kellie went into labour soon after midnight.
“In those days it wasn’t really done, but if I hadn’t jumped on that plane, I would’ve missed it. Beyond cricket is a life,” Hayden said.
Border accepted times have changed, but said the idea of leaving a tour to witness a birth simply wouldn’t register among the playing group in his era.
“It was something that was never discussed,” he added. “If you happened to be on tour with the Australian cricket team, you didn’t even think about not staying on the tour.
“I’m not sure when (that mindset) changed. But certainly now there’s not many guys who won’t leave a tour or not go on a tour because of the impending birth of children.
“The girls did it a bit tougher, maybe, in those days. It’s a sad thing to miss so I can understand where Virat’s coming from.”
REPLACING KOHLI: THE ANSWER TO CRICKET’S TOUGHEST QUESTION
There’s no sugar-coating how enormous a loss Virat Kohli is going to be for India – as a leader, as a batsman and an agitator, it will be impossible to replace what the 31-year-old superstar was expected to bring this summer.
From the moment he took over the captaincy during India’s doomed 2014-15 tour of Australia – replacing the great MS Dhoni, who retired after the second Test defeat at the Gabba – Kohli has been central to everything in the Indian team.
After scoring twin centuries as fill-in skipper in the second Test in Adelaide, Kohli officially took the reins following Dhoni’s retirement after the third Test – and has averaged a remarkable 61.21 at the helm of the team.
On Australian soil, he’s extraordinary. Six centuries and an average of 55.39, which rises to 66.45 in Tests as skipper.
So how does India fill it’s Kohli-sized hole?
THE REPLACEMENTS
With Kohli gone, it’s the all-important No. 4 batting spot which needs to be filled.
The most obvious solution is to promote Ajinkya Rahane – who averages 44 across two Australian tours, and will also take over the captaincy – to second-drop.
That leaves a battle between 21-year-old Shubman Gill and veteran Rohit Sharma, with Hanuma Vihari expected to slot in at 6.
When fit, Sharma has more recently been deployed as an opening batsman but in 25 of his 36 Tests he’s batted either No. 5 or No. 6 – so he’s very comfortable joining the fray in the middle order.
The uncapped Gill is an exciting prospect, averaging a stunning 73 in first-class cricket, and has been the pick of the India A batsmen over the past two years – with two double centuries.
But with six Test centuries to his name, Sharma has runs on the board. And experience could count for plenty against the youngster.
The problem is that Sharma was only a last-minute addition to the Test squad and is battling a hamstring injury.
Complicating matters, wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha is also batting dual hamstring injuries. If he’s out, the experience factor will weigh even more heavily.
THE VETERANS
There’s no overstating it: India will need enormous performances from its veteran pairing of Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara.
Rahane was underwhelming last tour of Australia, notching just one half-century, while Pujara was a constant thorn in the side of a foursome touted as the world’s best attack.
The indefatigable No. 3 hit three centuries – in victories at Adelaide and Melbourne, and a mighty 193 in the drawn Test in Sydney – to finish the series’ leading runscorer.
Without Kohli, even more responsibility will fall onto his shoulders and India will need one – or more likely, both – of Pujara and Rahane to go large.
Rahane has captained twice in Kohli’s absence – leading India to victories against Afghanistan and, more notably, Australia to clinch the Border-Gavaskar trophy in Dharamsala in 2017.
THE WILDCARD
Last time India toured, the only player who drew as much hype as Kohli was a teenage prodigy described as the Next Sachin Tendulkar.
Prithvi Shaw didn’t play a Test that summer, after suffering a nasty ankle injury during a tour match at the SCG, and has played just twice in the two years since – notching one half-century against New Zealand last February.
With India’s biggest star sidelined, is it time to give their next big thing another go?
It’s very much a left-field option because Shaw, as a specialist opener, would not be a natural fit slotting into the middle order – and is unlikely to unseat either KL Rahul or Mayank Agarwal, who are also viewed as openers only.
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Originally published as Cricket legend Allan Border says Virat Kohli’s decision to head home for birth confirms times have changed