Book Excerpt - The Nine Waves - Kohli and Tendulkar

Kohli and Tendulkar

Players of different generations are impossible to compare. Football is endlessly debating whether the Brazilian Pele is the greatest or if the honour should go to the Argentinian Diego Maradona, his countryman Lionel Messi or the Portuguese, Cristiano Ronaldo. In cricket it is widely accepted that the greatest batsman was Bradman. Yet he played cricket almost wholly against England with one series each against South Africa, West Indies and India. In Australia there was then eight balls an over. However, there was no limited overs cricket, let alone red- and white-ball cricket. But there is no questioning his record and every batsman who comes after will be compared to him as Tendulkar was and now Kohli is.

As we have seen Bradman felt of Tendulkar, 'the fella plays much the same as I used to play. I can't explain it in detail but there is a similarity. It's his compactness, his stroke production. It all seems to gel. That was how I felt.' Bradman did not see Kohli but had he done so then I feel he would have classified him along with Brian Lara as the greatest of his generation, slightly more aggressive than Tendulkar, but Tendulkar ahead of both Kohli and Lara because he was the more all-round batsman.

In many ways Kohli is standing on Tendulkar's shoulders. The Tendulkar age saw cricket revolutionized with different formats of the game being established: red ball for Tests, white ball for limited overs, and this further refined into 50-over and 20-over matches. But while Tendulkar never played international T20 cricket, he has played for Mumbai Indians, Kohli joyously participates in all cricketing formats and yet makes it clear that he values Test cricket and sees supremacy in Test cricket as most important. He has played an important role in making sure that, despite attracting very few spectators, and many of them elderly, Test cricket continues to produce some of the most enthralling cricket we have ever seen. 

An interesting contrast between Tendulkar and Kohli is whether bowlers feel they can get them out. Both the South African Makhaya Ntini and the Englishman Steve Harmison thought they could get Lara out. Ntini, who could swing the ball in, bowled Lara behind his legs four times, Harmison had Lara caught at slip off short-pitched deliveries. But, as Mike Brearley, who considers Tendulkar 'the most complete batsman I have seen', points out, while Lara could be more aggressive Tendulkar never gave 'any bowler such rays of hope'.

Now contrast this with Kohli. In England in 2014 he was like a meek lamb slaughtered by Jimmy Anderson. The feeling was the Englishman had only to get to his bowling mark and Kohli was mentally shot. But as 2018 showed he learnt from that awful experience and coped with Anderson proving to English critics that he had both the technique and the mental ability to learn from adversity. That is always a mark of greatness.

This also illustrates a contrast between Tendulkar and Kohli. Tendulkar always gave the impression ever since he made the boys from my school cry that he had emerged as the finished product. Kohli, in contrast, has throughout his career had to fight to prove his worth. Could he be a one-day player? Could he make the Test scene? Could he make runs in England? Vengsarkar called him the lambi race ka ghoda, the horse for long distance races, and that is what he is now proving to be. This means that when he reaches the end of the race, and given how long and complicated a cricket career can now be, he may well set up records that go way beyond anything achieved in cricket and put Tendulkar in the shade.

However, what he is not likely to do is make great foreign experts of the game feel he is not Indian. Brearley looking at Tendulkar felt, 'You wouldn't know from his style of play alone that he was Indian. He could have been from anywhere. He was firmly grounded, his feet apart in his stance. He had a perfect defensive technique, along with a wonderful ability to turn defence into attack with the minimum of flourish.'

Nobody could say that of Kohli. He is the modern Indian both on and off the field. He is also showing signs of eclipsing Tendulkar in one respect: leadership. For all his greatness with the bat, Tendulkar as captain did not take India to new frontiers. Kohli already has and there are signs that he could conquer worlds no Indian captain ever has. There is in that sense a ruthless streak in him that is very un-Indian. To see him bat he may, unlike Tendulkar, look very Indian. In the way he leads he may prove the most un-Indian of captains.