“Nothing is Perfect”

Meet Ankur Roshan who has kindly written the following article on Virat Kohli. He is 17 years old, from Patna and likes his PJ’s shaken not stirred. He is a self proclaimed “geek” and goes out of his way to keep up with the technological times.

It is easy to talk about Virat Kohli's attitude. He is young, successful and from Delhi, a city where brash is known to go with the former two attributes. He has everything a regular 23-year old would only dream of. He is the vice captain of the Indian cricket team, a World Cup winner, an IPL star and currently in the form of his life. And he makes sure you know all that the way he swaggers around with what can only be termed as the “Don't-touch-me-I'm-Virat” look. All of this can be easily seen and easier to speak about. What is not seen largely due to Kohli's outward manifestations is the way the man goes about his game. Making centuries seems a cakewalk for him But you aint aware of the sheer determination behind those bombastic tons. Yuvraj Singh has said he wished he had Kohli's work ethic when he was young, and you can see during practice what made Yuvraj say that. I got the perfect answer to this question last year, on my visit to Kolkata, known as “The City of Joy” for giving KVPY Olympiad. It's a beautiful place to be at. This visit was a day before the T20 match at Eden Gardens, against England. The 2 hours spend at the" Mecca of Indian Cricket" made me give a second thought to the popular saying "Nothing is perfect".

If Gautam Gambhir's eyes drip intensity and Rahul Dravid's stance shows his determination, Kohli's entire being exudes a rare combination of precision and passion during practice.

Kohli's precision is not the mere cold calculation of doing exactly what is required to be done; it seems so natural it's almost surreal. He bats with precision, he takes catches with precision, he does fitness drills with precision, and he even gives throwdowns to team-mates with precision; all the while appearing completely natural!

Kohli's passion is not the uncontrollable childlike enthusiasm of a youngster. He will take several blinders at point during training and go down with a contorted face full of disappointment if he misses even one. There are many in this side that would not even go for such catches in the first place. Kohli gives the impression he really wants to be there, doing what he is doing, playing cricket for India.

He starts by thumping the spinners in the nets. There are a couple of local net bowlers and the three specialist India spinners - R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha and Rahul Sharma. Kohli hardly differentiates between them. He charges out and carts them over the boundary. He lofts them into the stands. He crashes them off the back foot. Even from a distance of tens of metres, the sight is brutal. Not in the display of power, as MS Dhoni shows later, but in the relentlessness of it.

He moves on to taking high catches on the boundary. He takes them all. He leaps and takes them inches from the rope. He runs several yards in front to take them. He drops none. At no point does he appear to be straining himself. Is this man for real?

Now he takes those sharp ones at point. Virender Sehwag joins in for a few minutes, then walks away. Kohli continues to throw himself around. He goes with both hands, he goes with one hand. Suddenly, he drops one. And goes down as is he's dropped it in a World Cup final. Say what you will about the man's behaviour, but surely he can't be overdoing this reaction.

He now takes over the duty of hitting those high catches to his team-mates. And does it with gusto. Dhoni, who is among those taking the catches, asks for one close to the rope. The next ball promptly arrives where the captain wants it. thats shows that man's character as a person

Ah, he is done, finally. Surely, now he will show that he is tired. At least a deep breath? Not coming. The swagger is back in place as Kohli walks to the dressing room. He even poses for some photographs with a group of Indian fans. Did he smile broadly at the camera? Of course not. He's Virat. He is "Perfect".