The Fourth Innings

Cricket | T20I | T20 | IPL | IPL 2022 | RCB | Virat Kohli Every cricket, IPL and RCB fan wants Virat Kohli to score runs. A trademark Kohli innings is a lesson in batting with all of defence, taking singles and hitting boundaries executed to perfection. It is paced brilliantly and there is minimal risk involved with orthodox cricketing shots. I have not come across a more complete batsman in all my cricket following. Oh, the elegance of that cover drive, him holding his pose as the ball races to the boundary, and then fist-punching his partner as the bowler stands in despair. I miss that. I miss the old Virat Kohli. I am not going to argue over whether it is his misfortune or just poor form. The truth is he is not scoring runs in this IPL season. Him taking out his frustration while looking up into the sky after his dismissal v PBKS summed up the emotions of most of us. It is just not happening for him and however much you want to hold on to him, he is giving lesser and lesser reasons ...

Cricket | Test | ODI | T20I | India | Captaincy | Virat Kohli  Virat Kohli recently stepped down as India captain in Test cricket. Following are the announcements leading up to it. "....... I've decided to step down as the T20 Captain after this T20 World Cup in Dubai in October." It made sense thanks to his immense workload and a proven leader in Rohit in the waiting.  "This is going to be my last leg in the IPL as captain of RCB." This was coming, since the IPL workload is much greater as compared to T20 Internationals. "Bottom line - there can't be two white-ball captains", said Sourav Ganguly, justifying Rohit's ascent to ODI captaincy when Kohli still wanted to continue as leader. Fair enough, makes sense to have a clear distinction between white-ball and red-ball captaincy. I thought the above events may finally allow Kohli to become the world-beating Test captain we all knew he was going to be and make India a long-format dominator acro...

Cricket | Test | India | Captaincy Virat Kohli  wrote to the world , on 16 September, 2021, " Understanding workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space  to be fully ready to lead the Indian Team in Test and ODI Cricket. " He had clearly stated that he wanted to continue leading team India in the other two formats, while giving up T20I captaincy. 121 days later, he  stepped down  as the Test captain, being  replaced  by Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain before that. He was no longer the captain of the Indian National Cricket Team. End of an era in true sense. A win percentage of 63.46 doesn't come easy in cricket. The decision to give up T20I captaincy was clearly a well-discussed and well-thought one. To quote Kohli, he arrived at the decision " a fter a lot of contemplation and discussions with my close peop...