Adelaide [Australia], October 21 : When star Indian batter Virat Kohli enters the comfortable, lush-green and familiar field of Adelaide Oval for the second ODI against Australia on Thursday, it could be for the last time the legend could be making his appearance at the iconic venue where he has played some of his best cricket. The date of October 23rd, the day of the match, also holds a massive significance in his career, and the soon-to-be 37-year-old could script another core memory for the Indian cricket audience at the venue.
The second ODI between India and Australia will take place at Adelaide Oval from Thursday onwards. After a disappointing eight-ball duck at Perth on his international return, which dampened the festive feel around this ODI series taking place in Diwali week, Virat would be aiming to make amends with a fine knock and avoid the outside off-stump trap that has followed him for a long while.
At Adelaide Oval, he is India's highest run-getter of all time, with 975 runs in 12 matches and 17 innings at an average of 65.00, with five centuries and four fifties, with a best score of 141. Notably, he is also the best visiting batter of all time at this venue, and it is his home away from home.
Virat has delivered some of his biggest career statements at this venue. When his credentials as a Test batter were met with skeptism in his early 20s during the 2011-12 Test tour, Virat registered his maiden Test hundred at this venue, against a fiery line-up of Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle against who even legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid struggled to tackle at twilight of their careers. Result? Virat was the only Indian batter to cross the 300-run mark in the series, which marked the beginning of the end for these legends mentioned above.
His next statement came during December 2014 in the first Test of the tour, when a 26-year-old Virat stepped into the shoes of MS Dhoni, with the latter out due to an injury. In his very first Test as a captain, Virat slammed twin hundreds, 115 and 141. The bouncer that Mitchell Johnson had launched on his head to intimidate him after a 134-run, almost career-ending tour to England, triggered something in Virat. Whispered, silent chants of 'Om Namaah Shivay' came from Virat's mouth as he smashed Johnson, Siddle, Harris and Nathan Lyon all over the park as if that England tour had never happened.
His 141 in the 2nd innings, while chasing 364 on the final day, signalled what was going to happen when Virat took over captaincy full-time, no boring draws, no complacency, just going for the kill till the last ball. While India fell short of the target by 48 runs, the Delhi boy had announced he was India's next warrior in whites that teams would struggle to tame, that his wicket would be one to be earned, not thrown away casually.
In January 2019, came a classy 104 in 112 balls, which helped India seal a comeback win after being 1-0 down in the three-match series, which they would win by 2-1. This was India's first ODI series win in Australia.
His last outing at Adelaide was not the one he and his fans would remember fondly, as the outside off-stump trap laid by Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland removed him from the crease before he could even gain some fluency. After a century in the first Test at Perth, the slow, repeated and painful surrender to outside off-stump trap had begun, which sent him right into Test retirement.
But he would have something even more special to take inspiration from. The last time his game, intent and spot within the team was questioned, he gave India a Diwali gift that they would remember from ages. Down to 31/4 while chasing 160 against Pakistan during the ICC T20 World Cup 2022, it was Virat who slowly pulled back the game to India's favour with a century stand with Hardik Pandya, scoring 82* in 53 balls, a score immortalised in cricketing history by two audacious sixes against Haris Rauf in the penultimate over while the bowler was steaming in and delivering 140 mph-plus rockets. The first of those sixes, a straight one over Rauf's head, has been labelled as the 'Shot of the Century' by the ICC.
This knock, which came in front of a sold-out Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on October 23rd, proved to be the start of Kohli's second wind in international cricket. While his Test fortunes fluctuated, his white-ball form never faded, and he ended up conquering it all, be it a record-breaking 50th ODI ton, an all-time best 765-run campaign in the 2023 Cricket World Cup, a 50-over WC 'Player of the Tournament', the maiden T20 World Cup and IPL titles, making heaps of runs along the way.
When he steps to the Adelaide exactly two years later, fans would be expecting another Virat masterclass that could fuel his own and nationwide dream of him lifting the 2027 ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia.
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