Virat Kohli’s greatest strength is his noggin

What makes Indian captain Virat Kohli so good? It’s not just his piercing cover drive … it’s something Jordan, Federer and Warne all had in spades.

India captain Virat Kohli. Picture: Getty Images

In the 2013 edition of the Indian Premier League I skippered the Kings XI Punjab franchise. In a match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, we were in all sorts of bother chasing a huge total and it felt like the scenario was about to get worse.

At 4-111, chasing 190, our last recognised batsman, South African David Miller, had knocked one straight up into the Mohali night sky and the Bangalore captain, Virat Kohli, settled underneath. Take the catch and deliver the last rites to our run chase. Simple. He dropped it. History now shows Miller went on to hit a 38-ball century and we won the match with several balls in hand. A rather costly error it was for the young Indian tyro and the crowd was letting him know it.

At the match after-party I saw Virat in the corner and made a point of talking to him. I felt sorry for the kid.

“Don’t worry about that tonight,” I said. “You are a superstar with a long journey ahead. It’s a minor hiccup. Learn from it and move ahead. Just push it out of your mind”.

“What’s that?” he asked. Not in a manner that he hadn’t heard me. More along the lines of, “What are you referring to?”.

India's Virat Kohli goes on the attack against a Cricket Australia XI at the SCG last week. Picture. Phil Hillyard

It struck me immediately. He’d already dealt with it. He’d processed the event, churned it around in his head for a while and, like an Apple Mac, dumped it in the trash basket. Probably held the icon on the trash can long enough to take the “empty trash” option as well.

It’s an understatement to say the greats in any sport have tremendous mental strength. It’s their most potent weapon. Shane Warne, Roger Federer and Serena Williams, Michael Jordan. All are in possession of a sportsperson’s greatest ally, a strong mind. Better than any magical flipper. Far more powerful than a brilliant backhand or ability to hit buzzer-beating three-pointers.

The ability to analyse what has just happened, identify areas for change to gain improvement and then most significantly banish the incident to the past, has seen all these champions be, well, just that, champions.

And there was young Kohli, nearly six years ago, comfortable in the social environment when I personally would have been in the foetal position in my hotel room after letting a team victory literally slip through my hands.

India's Virat Kohli regrips his bat. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Not arrogant. Not careless. Not dismissive of the result. But for him, the incident was over and done with. Gone.

The mental side of Kohli’s game is to be enjoyed as much as his piercing cover drive. And while he’s been busy refining and understanding its importance in the big picture of late, it seems his noggin has always been a strength.

One wonders if the batting maestro’s mind will ever be tested as much as in his debut season of first-class cricket for Delhi as an 18-year old.

In the middle of a four-day match, Kohli’s father Prem passed away in the early hours of the morning, after battling illness for a number of months.

The wider family were told the news and immediately made their way to the house to begin the grieving.

In what Virat himself described as a haze of sadness and shock, the young man remembered he was not out overnight in the match and due to resume his innings in a few hours.

Unsure what to do, he rang his childhood coach for advice. “What would your father want you to do?” was the question posed.

Kohli resumed his innings and scored 90, a century only taken away by a howler of an umpiring decision. Empathy isn’t high on the list for the cricketing gods.

What a tough young mind to tread that particular journey back in 2006 and to conquer many a challenge since.

It’s a mind that can focus in on the task at hand with laser-like precision, allowing complete clarity to attend to the challenge presented.

India’s captain Virat Kohli celebrates the dismissal of Australian all-rounder Mitch Marsh during the second Test in Bangalore last year. Picture: AFP

Again, it’s the greatest players, in fact, the most successful people in any profession, not just sport, who identify the time to zero in. They make whatever the job in front of them is the most important thing in their life at that moment. To be certain, I’ll say that again, from my observation of Kohli.

He makes the very next delivery he faces the most important thing in his life at that moment. Because at that moment, he can’t do anything about any other aspect of his life anyway. Deal with that delivery, switch off and relax, then once the bowler is at the top of his mark, switch back on for the next one.

Discussing batting technique with Kohli at an early training session at the start of this tour, he said he has really started to finetune his mindset and technical aspects of his batting for Test cricket. Its taken him a while, he said.

Because of the amount of Twenty20 and one-day cricket they play, he feels he almost goes into a form of autopilot when facing the white ball. Hardly even thinks about it. The match situations are always so similar and familiar given the structured format of the limited overs game.

But not Test cricket. There’s a new and exciting challenge every single day. No certain road map the match will follow. To master this format, like he has the pyjama cricket, he wants to switch the mind into overdrive. To be even more well prepared. Sharper, more focused. If a technique needs changing to adapt to a new scenario, he’s keen to identify it and get to work.

Given Kohli took his ODI run aggregate from 9000 to 10000 in just 11 innings and he was in autopilot mode, heaven help the opposition around the world in Test cricket now that he’s giving it his full attention.