Virat Kohli doesn’t go searching for the spotlight; but it chases him anyway. October 11, 2023 was supposed to be Rohit Sharma‘s evening at the World Cup. He broke not one but four gigantic batting records, scored a World Cup hundred at home, and more importantly, looked like the Rohit of old – his mid-20s self. And yet, when the dust settled following Rohit’s carnage of Afghanistan, all they could talk about was Kohli. Not for his unbeaten half-century, but because a bitter IPL chapter that had blown out of proportion six months ago drew curtains.
Rohit was on song. He was having fun on Kohli’s home ground. It was a glorified nets session for the India captain, who was out for a duck the previous game against Australia. A friend texted “Rohit jab khelta hai na flow mein, duniya ke saare batters paani kam lagte hain (When Rohit plays is in full flow, other batters appear mortal). This guy is something else”. Couldn’t disagree. Another 200 looked on the cards, but at 36, the penchant to play long goes missing. Rohit had hit 14 boundaries to go with 4 sixes, and ensured bums on seats in a tournament where low attendance has made more noise than crowd itself.
Rohit was owning a venue that belonged to Kohli… until Ishan Kishan was dismissed. Out came Kohli and the mood changed. As Kohli walked out of the pavilion named after him, the stadium obviously erupted. It had to. This was Kohli’s second and last World Cup game in front of his home crowd. When he last played here, Kohli, 22, who was still finding his feet in international cricket, scored 12 off 20 balls. The journey from being a rookie to becoming a legend, quite possibly the world’s biggest cricketer of this generation, is a path that the people of this city have lived with Kohli. But when Hashmatullah Shahidi gave the Kotla faithful the moment they were waiting for by handing the ball to Naveen-ul-Haq at the fall of India’s first wicket, that cheer had the potential to surpass even the most deafening WWE pops of all time.
The moment of truth arrived when Rohit tapped the ball for a single, and Kohli took strike. Months of that pent-up energy, social media engagements, the mango references and the philosophical quotations… it all boiled down to this: Naveen-ul-Haq bowling to Virat Kohli. Earlier in the day, the crowd broke into ‘Kohli’ chants much before the game started when the Afghanistan pacer was going about his pre-match drills, and it reached a crescendo when he walked out to bat at No. 10. This was the showdown everyone had been waiting for. Kohli tapped his bat on the ground, Naveen ran in to bowl, and to put icing on the cake, Gautam Gambhir, the other man in this feud, was on commentary. Everything was perfect.
The first ball was crunched off the middle of VK’s big red MRF but rolled to the long-off fielder. While Rohit was already on a boundary and six-hitting spree against the Afghan bowlers, Kohli chose a more restrained approach, leaving some Delhiites mildly disappointed. Naveen bowled 10 deliveries to Kohli, from which he managed to score only three singles. And still, the Kohli vs Naveen duel overshadowed everything else: the World Cup, India vs Afghanistan, and, of course, Rohit’s century.
In the 26th over, the moment of the innings, match and arguably the World Cup unfolded when at the fall of Rohit’s wicket, Naveen walked up to Kohli and put an end to their spat dating back to May. Naveen may have made the first move, but Kohli, now a gentle giant, reciprocated the sentiment with a beaming smile. And just like that, the animosity which began with a bang ended in a whimper. Kohli then played it down further when he urged the public not to taunt Naveen, bringing back memories of a similar gesture involving Steve Smith during the 2019 World Cup when the London crowd was giving the former Australia captain a hard time for the infamous ‘Sandpapergate’ scandal.
The warmth between Virat and Naveen didn’t end there. It continued even after the match and almost instantly, Kohli started to trend again – and we cannot stress this enough – not for his unbeaten 55 off 56 balls, the six boundaries he hit, or scoring the winning runs. Once India wrapped up a comprehensive 8-wicket thrashing, Rohit was asked to speak twice on the mic – once for winning the Player-of-the-Match award and then again for sharing his thoughts as the winning captain – but even 10 hours later, Kohli and Naveen’s newly-found friendship was making headlines.
The morning after an India win is when the Indian public has the most fun as there is no shortage of memes and gifs on the internet. But amid the lighter side, one very interesting video summed up the beautiful camaraderie between Rohit and Kohli. As Rohit reached his 31st ODI century, the camera panned toward the dressing room, where Kohli erupted in joy – the type of feeling only true best friends share. The rumours of rift, tension, coldness, and differences stemming from the drama surrounding Kohli’s captaincy saga is now a thing of the past. The unwavering backing of each other during press conferences, the constant display of support and their celebrations whenever India complete a famous victory exemplify the essence of this inseparable bond.
11 years ago, during the 2012 Asia Cup when Kohli and Rohit were batting together against Pakistan and chatting at the end of an over, Sunil Gavaskar, famously said on air: “Rahul Dravid has retired. We don’t know how long Sachin Tendulkar has left, but this, right here, is the future of Indian cricket”. For over a decade, Kohli and Rohit have been the only constant pillars of India’s batting, and to be honest, it doesn’t matter who garners more attention, runs, or the front page as long as the World Cup lands in their hands on November 19.
