Dear Virat,
You know it gives me chills to even think about the letters that are about to come next. It is like something massive for me. Being an ardent fan of you, seeing you grow from that young arrogant kid to a matured hero for millions, is a feeling that words won’t do justice to. Yet, here I am, trying to tell you whatever I can.
Virat, you started your career on a very reticent note and yet the knock that you played under all the limelight of the world, believe me, that wasn’t probably a match-defining 97 or a World Cup-winning 75 but it was a foundation, a foundation of belief, a foundation on which an entire nation would not hesitate to rely a few years down the line.
You got your white jersey a few months later and the way you started, the ardent Indian fans gave up the faith that they had in you. A few were considerate enough to tell the world that he is just a greenhorn and with time a lot will change. Only if they had known that the entire world around you and them are going to change, not just any change but a total paradigm shift, kind of a big bang in cricket that would give birth to countless records and topple the existing ones.
The first glimpse of your tactical brilliance in the longest format of the game came against the mighty Caribbeans at the comfort of your own home. Even though the glory was short-lived, yet you rekindled something lost in the believers. And that mattered, Virat.
Your first major acid test was when the selectors thought that you should be given another chance instead of being axed totally but it came in the hostile pastures of the mighty Australians where stepping foot is more akin to setting an automated machine gun on firing mode.
The first game at Melbourne Cricket Ground intensified the frowns as you returned figures of 11 and 0. As the patience started growing thinner, you made life a lot more difficult for yourself as your returns at Sydney read 23 and 9. But that 23 was stroke-filled and somewhere it provided the hopes of a turnaround, something implausible from an Indian POV but something that made the selectors flinch.
It was at Perth that you brought out the big guns, left Australia stunned and repaid the faith that the supporters and selectors vested in you. That 44 was just the tip of the titanic iceberg that was about to sink a myth in the cricketing epics.
You followed that up with a rollicking 75, leaving the hosts stunned and gunned in front of a force called Virat Kohli. Adelaide incurred your wrath when you whipped out your maiden Test century and the entire world took notice.
Ever since then runs were flowing freely for you and you knew no bounds whatsoever. May it be a marauding Mitchell Johnson or may it be a deadly duo of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel in the inimical shores of South Africa, you were relentless, you were hellbent and you were simply mesmerizing.
As you know Virat that India has always been a fanatical land where cricket is probably the biggest religion. When someone shines in the Indian colours, the fans would keep no stones unturned to worship him and when that same name falters, they would ensure that he feels the pangs of donning the Indian jersey and with the advent of social media and some ferocious doom scrolling, life has become a living hell for the ones representing the national team.
That England tour, the repetitive nightmare, the consistent catcalls, the unreal hatred, how can someone make a comeback even after all of it? That needs an inhuman attitude. That needs belief. And that belief needs to be stronger than one’s faith in God because what comes next is Australia and you had to face them Down Under.
You walked out in the middle with hatred raining down on you and you responded louder than ever, hammering two consecutive centuries in the holy land of Adelaide. You rained down with even greater ferocity when Melbourne came calling. Australia thought that you were done, but were you? Sydney incurred your wrath in an even ghastlier incarnation.
All the hatred and flak that you received for your fiasco in England, you earned love in greater leaps and bounds. The entire nation came unhinged at the sheer beauty of your batting.
Ever since then, it has been a journey marked by countless ups and downs and your battle with the world continued. It has been a couple of years since you racked up a century and the fans would not let any opportunity go to demonize you because for them scoring a century is like dust.
Well, Virat, here you are and your hundredth Test looms. It has been 70 Test innings since your last hundred came and your hundredth Test will be the 71st. Imagine ending your drought of centuries by scoring the 71st in your 71st inning since your last ton came, it would be nothing short of poetry.
Virat, you have already gifted us a lot. There is a request, if I may? Don’t hold yourself back. Please do not lose yourself in the thought that what would happen if the century never arrives. It is okay Virat even if the 71st never comes. But when you walk out to take the field in your hundredth Test, make a statement, a statement of intent, a statement of attitude and a statement where the world knows, who is the king.
I will always keep on hollering at the top of my lungs that I believe in you, Virat and always will.
Yours sincerely,
A crazy cricket lover
