It cannot be known whether Virat Kohli arrived in Melbourne looking for a fight.
By accident or design, Kohli found himself in numerous scrapes over the past week, starting with a confrontation at the airport, and continuing with his diagonal path into the shoulder of Sam Konstas on Boxing Day.
Virat Kohli gestures to the crowd.Credit: Getty Images
In the final half-hour of play on day two, Kohli was in the middle of another confrontation, this time with a teammate. Yashasvi Jaiswal saw a quick single to mid-on and took it, only to watch as Kohli turned his back and then protested his innocence. Pat Cummins pounced, the crowd roared.
Though Australia had the running of this game for most of the day, the run out of Jaiswal was the moment that their script was finally and properly written.
At 22, and with an imperious century behind him in Perth, Jaiswal had looked capable of absolutely anything. At 5-164 in reply to 474, India appear capable only of defeat.
The disastrous run out that claimed the scalp of Yashasvi Jaiswal.Credit: Channel Seven
But after his gesticulations to Jaiswal at the non-striker’s end, Kohli’s fire shrunk back down to a flicker. It was not exactly a surprise when he fiddled at a classical delivery from Scott Boland and edged behind in much the same way that has dogged Kohli against all opponents over much of the past couple of years.
Up to that point, Kohli had appeared to be briefly energised by his reprise of a punchier character who world cricket had come to know over the first decade of his international career.
That Kohli had picked fights, agitated opponents, and been held up as an avatar of the “new India” – far less timid than before.
His recognition of the advantages of such feisty play had come over the course of the 2011-12 Australia tour, where India faltered but Kohli flourished.
“Yeah, I don’t mind a fight,” Kohli said in 2014. “I don’t mind a bit of chat on the field, a bit of banter. I don’t mind all that. It probably makes me even more determined, I guess. I’m pretty focused to do well all the time, but that’s an added spice that I like.
“Last time around, I enjoyed it. It was too aggressive for me, initially, to take it for the first couple of Tests. But after a few incidents I figured there’s no other way of playing in Australia. So I will just be myself.”
Kohli carried on thinking for a long time that his best self was more fighter than lover. The 2017 Border-Gavaskar battle in India was an occasion where he struggled with the bat – the start of Australia’s hold over him around that sixth stump line – but still dominated the series with his rhetoric.
Virat Kohli trudges off the MCG to a chorus of boos.Credit: Getty Images
That peaked in Bengaluru, when he used a post-match press conference to all but accuse the Australians of cheating by seeking off-field help for DRS calls.
“Sledging and playing against the opponents is different, but… I don’t want to mention the word, but it falls in that bracket,” Kohli had said. “I would never do something like that on the cricket field.”
Over time, however, Kohli mellowed somewhat. His appearances before match referees grew less frequent, and his performances became more serene in nature. Before this summer, he contributed an articulate and generous foreword to Glenn Maxwell’s book, The Showman, reasoning with the wages of cricketing pugilism.
“Deeper into my career, I realised that our world view as younger men wasn’t the only way to succeed,” he wrote.
“Forever combative, always on the edge, can lend you energy for a time but can ultimately be exhausting.
“Maxi and I have spoken since about feeling this way, where offence was easily taken and tempers frayed. He had a smile on his face more than I did – always a joker, but we were both part of a wider culture.”
Either through calculation or desperation, Kohli has tapped back into that old culture this week. Offence has been more easily taken, fights had, and the match referee’s office visited once again.
There were plenty of questions asked about the appropriateness of a moderate fine to punish Kohli for his attempt to intimidate Konstas. But the question Kohli must now ask himself is whether that approach, and all the opprobrium that came with it, was worthwhile in his final Test series in Australia.
Looking on from the Seven commentary box, Sunil Gavaskar wondered aloud.
Yashavsi Jaiswal looks towards Virat Kohli as Australia celebrate his run out.Credit: Getty Images
“I just hope Kohli, being one of the greatest cricketers in the world, [that] he’s not remembered for this,” he said. “He has got to be remembered for what he’s done with the bat, how he has brought energy to cricket in India. That’s what he should be remembered for.”
When he batted on day two, large sections of the crowd booed. The Australian bowlers gave Kohli some unusual leeway early on, bowling fewer early deliveries in the channel outside his off stump than at any other stage in the series. Kohli took advantage for a time, but could not sustain the innings after running out Jaiswal.
Kohli, undoubtedly, has been a part of what has made the first two days of this Test match so memorable for nearly 180,000 spectators. But for him, those memories will not be happy ones.
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