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Kohli makes a fresh start with Kotla knock

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S Kannan
S KannanOct 13, 2014 | 17:33

Kohli makes a fresh start with Kotla knock

At the start of the week in Shanghai, Roger Federer had talked of how each athlete needs to have a dream.

After a roller-coaster year on the ATP Tour, the Swiss master tamed old rival Novak Djokovic in Saturday's semi-final and is now assured of the No.2 ranking next week ahead of Rafael Nadal.

Having gone without a Grand Slam title since Wimbledon the 2012, Federer knows how tough it is to fight the demons and yet continue to work hard and also maintain one's passion for the sport. Now that Federer has beaten Djokovic in China - something considered almost unthinkable given the Serb's record - one should not be surprised if he is able to race to the yearend No.1 slot.

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Like the trauma which Federer faced, Virat Kohli, too, was battling a variety of problems. Falling for low scores repeatedly and labelled as someone who was 'distracted', it has taken a long time for Kohli to play himself back into form.

The 62 runs which he scored on a typically dead Kotla track against the West Indies on Saturday was not a trademark Kohli knock. He was subdued, and for once, it appeared as though he was playing for himself and not the team.

As one who has scored over 5,000 runs in ODIs with 19 centuries to boot, life was miserable for Kohli. When he failed in the five Tests and four ODIs in England, he was written off. The half-century he scored in the lone T20 match at the fag end of the tour is not what millions of Kohli fans wanted to see.

And once the champion batsman flopped in the first ODI in Kochi, almost anyone connected with Indian cricket was wondering how Kohli would regain the touch. When Kohli batted down the order at No.4, the immediate reaction was that the team management had heeded Sunil Gavaskar's suggestion.

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At a time when the Indian team desperately needs Kohli to fire, he will be thanking many people and his stars for finding runs. Frankly speaking, it's a very tough situation to be in when you get out cheaply and don't know what's going wrong. Champions in any sport can have a slump - how they climb out of it makes for a fascinating story.

Whether it is talking to coaches or mental conditioning experts, the fact remains Kohli got the full backing of the team, including underfire coach Duncan Fletcher. After the knock on Saturday, Kohli talked about his four or five good years and the bad patch that followed. By his own admission, he respects what happened and feels the turnaround has been for the better.

It is also important that at a time like this, Kohli's teammate Shikhar Dhawan stood up for him. A day before the Kotla ODI, Dhawan spoke of how tough Kohli was mentally and the mutual respect they have for each other.

By the lofty standards Kohli has set, his knock on Saturday was not that effervescent. For one who strokes the ball so well, there was hesitation in his approach.

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But one should not worry too much about it as there is plenty of cricket to be played in this series against West Indies. From here on, Kohli will be able to breathe a bit more easily and focus on his technique as well as the mental aspect.

The important thing for an athlete when the chips are down is to stay positive. Kohli's dry run is not unique in cricket. At the fag end of his Test career when Sachin Tendulkar was also scratching around for runs, he had to face intense media scrutiny. Only in his farewell Test series against the same opponents last year did the scrutiny gave way to a sense of celebration of his career.

In the lead-up to the 2015 ICC World Cup, it is important how the key players in the India side fine-tune their game. Without sounding cliched, Kohli could not have timed his 'return to form' better. The impatience was showing on his face and, after all these months, he will finally be able to get a good night's sleep when he returns to his room.

 

Last updated: October 13, 2014 | 17:33
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