Kohli rekindles love affair with lands that he has enchanted and infuriated as depleted India eye hat-trick of wins in Australia

For the longest of times, especially on Australian soil, this was a rivalry driven by hype and hoopla, more than equality on the field. Often billed as a contest of fierce rivals, it unravelled into a damp squib, India unable to justify the expectations of not just their own fans at home but also the several thousands who populate the insular nation of the kangaroo.

It wasn’t until their fourth tour, in 1980-81, that India came away from Australia with honours intact, GR Vishwanath’s century and Kapil Dev’s courageous five-for despite a leg injury earning them a dramatic win in Melbourne and a drawn 1-1 series score line. But two of the next three series were wipeouts – India lost 1-4 in 1991-92 and 0-3 in 1999-2000 – and a certain disillusionment started to creep in.

Then came Sourav Ganguly’s men in 2003-04, who took the lead in a series in Australia for the first time. Four years later witnessed the acrimonious ‘Monkeygate’ tour which India conceded 1-2, but not before becoming the first Asian nation to win a Test in Perth, the most Australian of all grounds.

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These two tours marked a shift in perception, with India no longer seen as the meek, good boys who would put up an occasional fight but not take the first step forward in aggression. These were followed by the visit of 2011-12, a disaster on the field as Australia swept to a 4-0 victory but the beginning also of a new chapter in Indo-Aus rivalry.

It was during that blowout that a brash, slick-talking, rough-around-the-edges young man made Australia sit up and take notice. He was happy to trash-talk, in the manner of their opponents, and he thought nothing of flipping the bird to the spectators even though he was only in his second Test tour with the senior team. He brought up his first Test century in Adelaide in the last match of that four-game face-off after having met Australia’s fire with brimstone in the previous fixture in Perth, when he backed up 44 in the first innings with 75 in the second.

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Welcome, Virat Kohli.

Initially, the Australians didn’t know what to make of this upstart. In a side of senior statesmen – Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman – here was this irreverent lad, a former Under-19 World Cup-winning captain, compelling attention as much with his antics as his batting. He was delightful with bat in hand, unabashed and uncompromising with and without it, using the lip liberally, ready and willing to get into a scrap, giving back as good as he got and oftentimes bettering it.

The beginning of a love affair with Oz

Australia didn’t know it then, but the first flutterings of a lasting love affair with Kohli started on that tour. It solidified three years later when, after a disastrous sojourn in England that fetched him just 134 runs in ten innings, he slammed four centuries in as many matches. He began the tour of 2014-15 standing in for Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the captain in Adelaide; by the last game in Sydney, he had become captain in his own right, Dhoni retiring without warning after salvaging a draw in the previous outing in Melbourne.

Kohli is as adept at charming as he is masterful at annoying and irking. He has stared at, and stared down, Australia in their own fashion, smiling with a snarl – or is it snarling with a smile? – and then going out and batting as if he were having a net. Initially, Australia thought they were on to a good thing if they could get under his skin, get him riled up. With one flowing riposte through other, Kohli showed up the folly of that approach – the harder they went at him, the more copious was the flow of runs. Australia, eventually, figured out that Kohli was at his least dangerous when he was left to his own devices, but that doesn’t really come easily to them, does it?

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Without quite realising it, Australia began to love Kohli. Oh, they loved hating him, all right, but they couldn’t love loving him either. In him, they saw a little bit of themselves – actually, more than a little bit. They saw a fierce competitor, a consummate team man, an aggressive, attacking individual who wouldn’t give an inch but take more than that when given a quarter, a colourful, flamboyant, larger-than-life personality whose heart was in the right place even if his mouth always wasn’t.

Kohli wooed them with one masterpiece after another. A century in each innings in a bold but abortive chase in Adelaide in 2014. A monumental three-figure knock at the spicy Optus Stadium deck in Perth in 2018, again in a losing cause. Numerous one-day edifices, not all against Australia but coming in significant tournaments, such as the 50-over or the T20 World Cup. All capped by India’s first ever series triumph in this part of the world, in 2018-19. It had taken India 71 years to break their duck in Australia. Even destiny willed, perhaps, that Kohli should oversee that extraordinary 2-1 victory.

The central figure in the upcoming five-Test series

Now Kohli is back in these lands, lands that he has enchanted and infuriated, for one final tilt at the windmills. He has been the central figure in the ten days that India have been here, furthering their preparations for their first five-match showdown in Australia in 33 years . Newspapers and television channels and radio stations are full of Kohli – they refer to him as Virat, the ultimate acknowledgement that they have all but adopted him – at a level that not even the great Tendulkar commanded.

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Australia adored Tendulkar; they love-hate Kohli but they can’t do without him. Even the most die-hard Aussie will admit in private that top of their wish-list for this summer is an Australian triumph with many Kohli nuggets thrown in. Where have we heard variants of this before?

Kohli hasn’t been having a great year across formats, and India have slipped massively following their unparallelled 0-3 hammering at home by New Zealand . There is no Rohit Sharma at the start of the series, no Mohammed Shami , no Shubman Gill , no great depth in pace bowling with stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah looming as potentially the lone threat. Many young batters – Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel – are on their first senior tour of Australia, there is inexperience in the fast-bowling group. India are ripe for the picking, right? By rampant Australia, by seasoned Australia, by confident Australia?

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Then again, that’s what everyone thought four years back when India crashed to 36 all out in Adelaide , lost Kohli and Shami for the rest of the tour, kept losing seasoned campaigners throughout the series to injuries, and yet fashioned a miracle at the Gabba with a certain Rishabh Pant as the central figure. Pant is back here after having looked death in the eye and winked at it. He is a cult figure, almost Kohli-like but without the initial distaste his senior Delhi mate attracted. Maybe this is the tour when he will push the envelope, reshape his fast-developing legend and become the new Kohli. Or, more appropriately, the first Pant.