“If I don’t perform in this Test match…”: How Virat Kohli had once feared for his place in India’s Test team

In spite of an elongated rut in Test cricket, former captain Virat Kohli appears to be immune from getting dropped from the current Indian squad. While this immunity is well-deserved for a cricketer who has had countless achievements across formats over the years, it wasn’t always the case with Kohli.

There was a time in his career when Kohli was on the verge of getting dropped from the Test team due to lack of runs. All of 23 then, Kohli had himself realized the high possibility of being benched during India’s tour of Australia 2011-12. With consistent domestic performers namely Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane yet to play a Test for India, Kohli was one poor match away from facing the axe.

Kohli, who had made his Test debut during India’s tour of West Indies 2011, hadn’t been able to convert his ODI form into red-ball cricket in his maiden series for India. With former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh returning to the Test squad before the home Tests against West Indies the same year, Kohli had to warm the bench in the first two Tests.

However, Singh’s mediocre form in the first two matches hadn’t earned him a spot for the third Test. Although Sharma had replaced Singh in the Test squad, Kohli was preferred over both Rahane (part of the first two Tests as well) and Sharma in the Playing XI. Scoring his first two half-centuries at the Wankhede Stadium further pushed Kohli up the pecking order for the tour of Australia.

How Virat Kohli had once feared for his place in India’s Test team

Having said that, Kohli, much like all other Indian batters, failed in the first two Tests in Australia to face pressure from both the selectors and himself. In all honesty, the selectors would’ve been fair in ousting Kohli as he had scored 234 runs across 11 innings at an average of 21.27 until then.

In fact, Kohli was so affected by the talks of getting dropped that he considers the third Test in Perth to be a “game-changer” with respect to his career. Speaking to Danish Sait in RCB Podcast, Kohli explained how two pressure-generating losses down under allowed him to self-motivate on the back of spending time alone.

“We were in Australia. As I remember, those two Test matches had gone horribly wrong. We were playing [the third Test] in Perth. That was a very tough pitch. Lot of pace and bounce and lot of grass on the pitch. And I knew, if I don’t perform in this Test match, there’s no chance I’m going to play the fourth [Test] and, probably, I’ll have to go to first-class cricket and find my way up again,” Kohli said on RCB Podcast.

Kohli, who described the team environment to be “very tense” after lacking behind 0-2 in a four-match series, disclosed how he thought he didn’t stand a chance of performing especially when seniors such as Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman were also struggling for runs.

“When it’s your first tour to Australia, you see everyone’s feeling that pressure. As a youngster, you feel like ‘I have got no chance here’. How the hell am I gonna turn this around? In that adverse situation, I kind of got that resilience. I kept telling myself, ‘I am good enough to play at this level. If I can eight hundreds [and 18 half-centuries] in ODI cricket, I can manage this as well.’ I kept telling myself ‘I am good enough. I am good enough’,” Kohli added.

Did Virat Kohli manage to save his Test spot?

Yes. Kohli, who touched upon terms like “power of visualization” and “self-belief”, realized how backing himself helped him in performing in the last two matches. In simple words, Kohli reflected on how it doesn’t matter if a player is playing his first match or 100th match. According to Kohli, having the confidence of belonging at the highest level can make a rookie more assured than a veteran on his day.

Highest run-scorer for the team in Perth primarily due to a third Test half-century, Kohli scored a maiden Test century in the fourth Test at the Adelaide Oval to kick-start a memorable relationship.

While both Rahane and Sharma made their respective Test debuts the following year, Kohli was never dropped from the Test squad. What followed was Kohli scoring a century each in his next three series to cement his position in the Indian Test team.

One would be doing injustice to this piece by not mentioning how, if not for the then captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and vice-captain Virender Sehwag, Kohli would’ve never been able to play the match at the Western Australia Cricket Association Ground that year.

“The selectors wanted to play Rohit Sharma instead of [Virat] Kohli at Perth in 2012. I was vice-captain and [MS] Dhoni was leading the team, and we decided that we have to back Kohli. The rest is history,” Sehwag had said while calling an India-England Test match for Star Sports Network in 2016.