Bowling to Kohli was tough. You never wanted to engage him too much, because you knew that it would bring out the best in him. At the same time, you never wanted to back down so much that he didn’t respect you.
If you bowled too full, he could punish you on both sides of the wicket. Drop short and he played off the back foot just as well. You knew you couldn’t miss.
He walked to the crease with his shoulders pushed back. You could sense an anticipation in the stands, even when Kohli was playing outside of India. It was intimidating, and you just had to stay in control of your own emotions.
There was an intensity about everything he did, and that extended off the field.
In 2016, we played a five-Test series in India. It was a long, gruelling tour that turned out to be Alastair Cook’s last as England captain.
As you move around the country, tourists typically stay in the same hotels as the India team, so you see them quite a lot away from the ground.
Two things stood out. Firstly, if Kohli even set foot in the hotel lobby, it was pandemonium. There were people just trying to catch a glimpse of their hero as he made his way to the team bus. Living with that level of stardom and pressure is like nothing any English cricketer can imagine.
Secondly was the way in which the India team had changed their attitude to training. On the previous Test tour, four years earlier, we would generally be the only team using the hotel gym. We would have free rein to use whatever equipment we pleased.
By 2016, these hotel gyms had now become boutiques to Kohli’s fitness regime, and the rest of the team followed on his coattails. There were Olympics lifting bars, weights and an on-call fitness trainer. It was obvious we were dealing with a very different India team, one that became formidable as a result.
That Kohli intensity was always going to be hard to sustain and I don’t think it’s surprising his Test batting numbers tailed off towards the end of his captaincy, then again as he fell back into the ranks.
That does not detract from his status as a great of the game. In terms of the Fab Four, he is the first to retire from Test cricket and his numbers do not match those of Kane Williamson, Joe Root and Steve Smith.
Still, Kohli is a cricketer of more than numbers. What he has done for Test cricket is going to be difficult for the next generation of India cricketers to live up to. Their lives have been made easier by the foundations laid by Kohli.
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