Walk with strut, speak with authority and, when needed, pull a high backfoot punch for a straight six under extreme pressure.
Alas, we are not champions but mere mortals who do the second best: watch an artist work and enjoy every moment until it lasts.
And may, live long enough to tell our grandchildren that we were a privileged person to have seen such talented people as Roger Federer, Lionel Messi, Usain Bolt and our own Virat Kohli.
Major sports achievements can do fun things. This can be a reason for unbridled joy but sometimes some exploits can numb anyone.
There was an occasion on Sunday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground where Kohli was completely out after Ravichandran Ashwin scored the most important one of his life.
Mission accomplished, he retreated silently but made people think in disbelief.
This was not the rugged Virat Kohli born in West Delhi. Fist pumps were missing, his chiseled jaw muscles relaxed. There was not a word of abuse.
Was it Virat Kohli or a ‘cheater’ impersonating him? The old aggression was back in his game but not in his body language. His batting was full of intensity but he didn’t need to fake it as he once admitted to doing so.
It seemed like a lull after the storm. Kohli no longer needed to reveal his feelings to express himself. He seemed like a man at peace with himself.
Suryakumar Yadav, currently known as the best T20 batsman in the world, had sprinted inside the MCG turf and got a bear hug. Virat Kohli hugged back but when the TV cameras zoomed in, it looked like he was still trying to absorb everything. There was a big smile when captain Rohit Sharma picked him up.
Even the most beloved ‘Indiranagar ka goon’, the normally stoic Rahul Dravid, took some steam as he high-fives with players and staff in the dug-out and later like a big brother Put his arms around Kohli.
After winning gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Abhinav Bindra admitted that he felt hollow soon after the Games. He had no goal left.
For Kohli, there is a tournament to be won but one can stop and wonder if he too has gone through a whole range of emotions that Bindra felt after Beijing?
At times, the feeling of euphoria that a heady achievement brings is often overshadowed by a sense of relief.
The country wanted his 71st international century but perhaps the champions in them wanted a bigger stage.
Where the century jinx was already broken against UAE in the Asia Cup, everyone wanted this kind of innings and there could be no better opposition than Pakistan and that too on the eve of Diwali.
As he was quietly returning to the dressing room, he gave a thumbs up to a section of the crowd but Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya insisted that he accept the audience on the other side of the MCG as well.
He raised his hand for a second.
Kohli, the batsman left his mark in our minds long ago. But Kohli, that person has started growing in our minds.
He is showing that he is not the alpha-match that market forces want us to believe he is. Rather, we are getting to know a new Kohli, more human, more vulnerable.
Like life, elite sport can be brutal as well as demanding at the same time. Kohli had faced this for the last three years when he faced drought.
For someone who had scored international hundreds for fun, he was put under the microscope and his place in the playing XI in T20Is was questioned.
After resigning from the T20 captaincy, being removed from the ODI leadership role and then freeing himself from the Test top post, Kohli had a crucial end to end 2021 and early 2022.
Even if you call the intense scrutiny and criticism of experts “extraneous noise,” everyone is human and bound to get hurt. It must have happened with Kohli as well.
He must have bled inside and wanted his vengeance in his own way: by allowing his bat to do the talking for him.
The last three years would have taken away a lot from cricketer Kohli and no one would complain if there was a ‘hand of God’ in this perfectly written script.
His wife Anushka’s Instagram post reveals what Kohli must have gone through over the years.
“..Although our daughter is too young to understand why her mother was dancing and screaming wildly across the room, one day she will understand that her father played his best innings that night, which was followed by a round of came what was tough for him but he came stronger and wiser than ever! Your strength is infectious,”
‘Chak De India’ may have been appropriated as India’s sports anthem, but those who are fans of 1980s rock didn’t mind humping Bonnie Tyler’s hit song from the movie ‘Footloose’ would have done.
“I need a hero. I’m holding out for a hero until the end of the night. He has to be strong, and he has to be fast. And he has to be fresh from the fight.”
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