CAN KOHLI EVER EMULATE TENDULKAR?

We asked The Cricketer's writers to reflect on India's captain getting halfway to the Little Master's century record

On Monday, Virat Kohli became only the eighth man ever to reach 50 international centuries with a counter-attacking ton against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens.

He is halfway to Sachin Tendulkar's record of 100 with many years of an already glittering career to come.

But how good is the India skipper? Can he ever emulate Tendulkar? And is his legacy put at risk by his fiery temperament? We asked our writers...

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HUW TURBERVILL: England fans became sick of the sight of Virat Kohli last winter. It was not just the 655 runs he clattered off them in the Test series 12 months ago. It was also the way he conducted himself.

He can come across as a bit aloof, with a sense of entitlement. He even moaned about England going home for Christmas! A snooty successor to Sourav Ganguly.

One has to realise what it is like to be an Indian batting star, however. You are deified by the public and the administrators. This was painfully apparent when India resisted DRS for so long, because Sachin Tendulkar and co were not keen.

English TV viewers have also become a bit immune to the sight of Kohli, when in their powder-blue kit, smashing the ball to all parts on flat tracks on their way to totals of 350-plus in ODIs (oh how the Indian public laps it up).

He had a rotten time in England in 2014, chiefly at the hands of James Anderson, so will be desperate to do well next summer. No one likes being called a flat-track bully.

Of course he is a marvellous cricketer who clearly loves playing for his country. He has championed Test cricket. Good on him for that.

He has all the shots, orthodox and wristy, and awesome power. And he’s perfectly entitled to be ruthless as captain. There’s nothing to say he will not surpass the extraordinary feats of Tendulkar. We know all this. He’s great. We just don’t have to love him.

^{Virat Kohli has reached 50 international centuries}

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JAMES COYNE: Virat Kohli is the best player in a generation which has only known India to be at the apex of the world game – both on the pitch and in the boardroom. Where the previous generation of cricketers generally deflected or avoided confrontation, Kohli evidently thrives on it.

Sure, Sourav Ganguly had his run-ins with Steve Waugh, Andrew Flintoff and others as he stood up for India’s interests, but even he was not quite such an aggressive character.

I guess the nub of the matter is whether it is all part of what makes Kohli the supreme cricketer that he is? Players the world over beat down his door for just a few minutes of his time, to glean whatever advice they can. They are in awe of his fitness and professionalism. And why wouldn’t they be, when he has all but perfected the art of batting in white-ball cricket, and is getting close to it in Tests.

Whether he is Sachin Tendulkar’s equal or superior is a hard one to judge, because Tendulkar spent the first, dazzling, half of his career in a side that was often brittle, especially away. Now India fans expect to see their team winning.

I thought Rahul Dravid articulated the Kohli issue very well a few days ago. He said: "Sometimes, especially before an Australia series, you'll find Virat saying the most outrageous things. And I read the paper and cringe at times. But then I think back, maybe he actually wants that contest. He wants that lip on the field because that gets the best out of him.

"Now that might not be everyone's cup of tea. But at the end of the day, he's got to do what gets the best out of him. Ajinkya Rahane is very different and he gets the best out of himself by doing different things. I think being authentic to yourself is very, very important.

Can Kohli emulate Sachin Tendulkar in reaching 100?

 

"If engaging in a contest, sometimes needling the opposition, is getting the best out of Virat – and it certainly is because his level of performance is second to none in the world today – then so be it. You can't blame him for it.

"What worries me a little bit is a lot of that gets translated into junior cricket. That's the scary thing for me, not so much what Virat does. Kids at 12, 13, 14 want to become the next Virat Kohli, not realising that maybe that's not authentic to who they are."

As Dravid says, it is important that Kohli stays true to himself. The frenzied celebrations every time his side takes a wicket are a matter of taste, I suppose.

And India’s tactics are infinitely more proactive since he replaced MS Dhoni as Test captain. But equally I am sure there are times he has overstepped the mark in his needling of players and umpires (who are neutral these days, after all).

This grates with many cricket lovers – and not just the conservative ones – who fear the game turning into football.

When Brendon McCullum took on the New Zealand captaincy in 2012, he resolved to change his approach to a freer, happier style of cricket, embracing what he thought was the culture truest to New Zealanders. It resulted in the most fulfilling period of his cricketing life.

Kohli's batting is already close to perfection. Who in their right mind would want to see that intensity at the crease disappear? But whether he is fulfilled in his cricket, only he can answer. One way or another, I would not be surprised, as he heads into his thirties, to see him mellowing a little on the field.