One of the most enduring memories of that magical April night in 2011, when India won the ODI World Cup at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, is Sachin Tendulkar being hoisted onto the shoulders and taken on a victory lap. “Tendulkar has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years, it was time we carried him,” said the 22-year-old on whose shoulders Tendulkar sat.
In a wonderful stroke of fate, the same boy would go on to fill the huge void left by Tendulkar’s imminent retirement in a couple of years and establish himself as the biggest star of the game over the next decade. The boy was Virat Kohli.
It wasn’t only about the mountain of runs and the countless milestones that Tendulkar had amassed in his nearly two-and-a-half-decade career. He was more than the fearsome batsman he was on the pitch. He was cricket’s biggest superstar, a crowd-puller and a beacon of hope for a nation of over a billion people. It wasn’t just the weight of his bat, Tendulkar carried the burdened of expectations of an emerging nation trying to figure out its place in the world. And he carried it all with aplomb.
Also Read: Virat Kohli retires from Test cricket, says "#269 signing off"
In that sense, Tendulkar left behind a legacy so immense that finding a worthy successor seemed nearly impossible. The weak would break under the incessant spotlight and relentless scrutiny. The fierce would burn themselves out in the unyielding demands of international cricket.
But the boy from West Delhi was made of sterner stuff. He had already gone through an ‘agni pariksha’ even before reaching adulthood. On a cold December morning in 2006, Kohli arrived at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground just hours after his father’s death. Hurting from the loss, he broke down in the dressing room. But he quickly composed himself, washed his face and stepped out to resume his innings. Kohli went on to score a match-saving 90 off 238 balls for Delhi against Karnataka. He left the ground early to perform his father’s last rites. That day made clear his commitment to cricket, or rather, to his duty, that he remained devoted to throughout his illustrious career.
Also Read: Virat Kohli retirement: From Shreyas Iyer to Cheteshwar Pujara- Top batsmen who can walk India through Test match crises
It was reminiscent of a similarly heartbreaking incident in Tendulkar’s life. In 1999, he was in England for the World Cup when his father passed away in Mumbai. He flew home immediately to be with his family and perform the rituals. With India in a dire situation after losing first two games – against South Africa and Zimbabwe (the latter in his absence) – Tendulkar returned and scored a hundred against Kenya to bring the team’s campaign back on track.
Unlike Tendulkar, Kohli took time to establish himself as a Test cricketer. But once he understood his game, he quite literally ran away with it -- scoring 21 centuries (six of them double) in 55 Tests between October 2014 and December 2019, at the peak of his game.
The last five years, however, have been a drag in comparison to the blistering pace at which he knocked down runs in the preceding years. His meagre returns of three centuries across 39 Tests since 2020 diminished his numbers and halted the juggernaut that once looked destined to conquer every batting milestone in the world.
Kohli is rightly credited with ushering an era of fitness in the Indian team and embedding it into the broader conscience of India. But his struggles in the last few years serve as a reminder that success in elite sport depends on more factors than just a fit body. And despite his superhuman achievements, he remains as mortal as any other great before him.
Still, Kohli sits pretty at No. 4 – the position he batted in Test cricket – on the list of all-time run-scorers for India, behind Tendulkar (15,921), Rahul Dravid (13,265) and Sunil Gavaskar (10,122).
Like Tendulkar, the shadow of Kohli’s legacy stretches far beyond the mountain of runs he accumulated. He taught India a new way of playing Test cricket where pursuit of victory came before safety. He urged Indians to not doubt themselves and play on their own terms. He showed that it was okay to break the tradition at the altar of team’s success.
Like Tendulkar, Kohli leaves a big void in his wake. Now, it’s up to the next generation to do what Kohli did with Tendulkar’s legacy: take it forward.
In a wonderful stroke of fate, the same boy would go on to fill the huge void left by Tendulkar’s imminent retirement in a couple of years and establish himself as the biggest star of the game over the next decade. The boy was Virat Kohli.
It wasn’t only about the mountain of runs and the countless milestones that Tendulkar had amassed in his nearly two-and-a-half-decade career. He was more than the fearsome batsman he was on the pitch. He was cricket’s biggest superstar, a crowd-puller and a beacon of hope for a nation of over a billion people. It wasn’t just the weight of his bat, Tendulkar carried the burdened of expectations of an emerging nation trying to figure out its place in the world. And he carried it all with aplomb.
Also Read: Virat Kohli retires from Test cricket, says "#269 signing off"
In that sense, Tendulkar left behind a legacy so immense that finding a worthy successor seemed nearly impossible. The weak would break under the incessant spotlight and relentless scrutiny. The fierce would burn themselves out in the unyielding demands of international cricket.
But the boy from West Delhi was made of sterner stuff. He had already gone through an ‘agni pariksha’ even before reaching adulthood. On a cold December morning in 2006, Kohli arrived at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground just hours after his father’s death. Hurting from the loss, he broke down in the dressing room. But he quickly composed himself, washed his face and stepped out to resume his innings. Kohli went on to score a match-saving 90 off 238 balls for Delhi against Karnataka. He left the ground early to perform his father’s last rites. That day made clear his commitment to cricket, or rather, to his duty, that he remained devoted to throughout his illustrious career.
Also Read: Virat Kohli retirement: From Shreyas Iyer to Cheteshwar Pujara- Top batsmen who can walk India through Test match crises
It was reminiscent of a similarly heartbreaking incident in Tendulkar’s life. In 1999, he was in England for the World Cup when his father passed away in Mumbai. He flew home immediately to be with his family and perform the rituals. With India in a dire situation after losing first two games – against South Africa and Zimbabwe (the latter in his absence) – Tendulkar returned and scored a hundred against Kenya to bring the team’s campaign back on track.
Unlike Tendulkar, Kohli took time to establish himself as a Test cricketer. But once he understood his game, he quite literally ran away with it -- scoring 21 centuries (six of them double) in 55 Tests between October 2014 and December 2019, at the peak of his game.
The last five years, however, have been a drag in comparison to the blistering pace at which he knocked down runs in the preceding years. His meagre returns of three centuries across 39 Tests since 2020 diminished his numbers and halted the juggernaut that once looked destined to conquer every batting milestone in the world.
Kohli is rightly credited with ushering an era of fitness in the Indian team and embedding it into the broader conscience of India. But his struggles in the last few years serve as a reminder that success in elite sport depends on more factors than just a fit body. And despite his superhuman achievements, he remains as mortal as any other great before him.
Still, Kohli sits pretty at No. 4 – the position he batted in Test cricket – on the list of all-time run-scorers for India, behind Tendulkar (15,921), Rahul Dravid (13,265) and Sunil Gavaskar (10,122).
Like Tendulkar, the shadow of Kohli’s legacy stretches far beyond the mountain of runs he accumulated. He taught India a new way of playing Test cricket where pursuit of victory came before safety. He urged Indians to not doubt themselves and play on their own terms. He showed that it was okay to break the tradition at the altar of team’s success.
Like Tendulkar, Kohli leaves a big void in his wake. Now, it’s up to the next generation to do what Kohli did with Tendulkar’s legacy: take it forward.
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