Virat Kohli's blitzkrieg of an innings the other night was so much more than a route to beat Sri Lanka and keep alive India's hope of a place in the tri-series finals in Australia.
It was also the catalyst that ought to restore India's faith in its ability and jolt its senior players from complacency. It affected fan and player; mediapersons and administration men; and so it should have done.
Long before he had reached his undefeated 133 the tone on Twitter, the responses to the on-line comments and the voices of the commentators on television and radio had changed. Gone was the cynical here-we-go-again mood; instead Kohli had replaced pessimism with a ring of confidence.
For how long depends on the response in the dressing room but he certainly deserves a helpful gesture, maybe even a flood of runs.
Perhaps he might even inspire Sachin Tendulkar to that century. It could not come at a better time.
Remarkable innings
His innings is also remarkable for its time in another sense. Remember when he played in the first of his eight Tests, Kohli was stepping into a team that boasted, with very good reason, that it was on top of the world. When he stepped onto the turf at Hobart — small ground, famous for quick scoring replying to a first innings of 320 — he would be a most positive young fellow if he could remember Indian success.
Whitewash in England, whitewash in Australia, on the verge of an exit from the one-day matches. What's to like in that situation?
Yet, from somewhere deep in his cricket soul Kohli dragged the assertiveness, not just to win the match in less than the required 40 overs, and take the Man-of-the-Match crown after Dilshan had hit 160, but to say to the rest of the team — “come on, lads, we are India, we can do so much better.”
Afterwards he boldly trod where no Indian voice has dared to go for a long, long time.
“In future we are going to play as we did today. You will see a completely different India.” It was the sort of speech, in intention and tone, that makes teammates and outsiders listen. His hero President Obama came to mind.
Conscious bid
I hope it was a conscious bid for the captaincy; but, although he will be vice-captain in Bangladesh, that can wait.
After all, this remarkable young man has only been in the Indian side for nine months.
Surely it is too early for him to take over from M.S. Dhoni, a captain who may have lost two Test series by the maximum possible margin but who is Mr. Cool, a tactician such as Test cricket rarely produces.
Before that innings we already knew Kohli was different. England's cricketers are covered in them but unusually for an Indian cricketer Kohli has a tattoo. He is temperamental, he looks as if there is something different about him.
He says what he thinks and that is a trait not to be under-valued.
England's Eoin Morgan is a left-handed Kohli in the dreams of coach Andy Flower. This winter he has shuttled between Dubai and Abu Dhabi to bat against the homeless Pakistan and never reached 32.
He has been sent back to Middlesex to ask older and wiser cricketers — no doubt John Emburey, Paul Downton and Mike Gatting — what cricket is all about.
Perhaps that Kohli innings will inspire Morgan to greater things too in which case the confrontation between these two in the next 10 years will be memorable.
