India's Virat Kohli hits the winning runs during the ICC Champions Trophy cricket match between India and Pakistan at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo)Near the end of his career, watching Sachin Tendulkar bat was like watching a rerun of one’s favourite show. India’s first big television cricket star had somehow incredibly managed to erase all signs of risk from his game, and his rhythms were all seamlessly patted down to a re-run pattern, a feeling of comfortable familiarity. His reactions to the ball, his shots, his body tics, his pacing of an innings – everything was synchronised to a wondrous predictability, and that’s a tribute.These days, if any Indian batsman can do it, it’s Virat Kohli. If there was one Indian who could even make a hundred against Pakistan look “boring” as he did on Sunday night, it was Kohli. It’s quite something really. One could sense that extra burst of adrenaline in all others in that line-up, including his contemporary Rohit Sharma; but not Kohli. He exudes a feeling of anachronism in one-day cricket – and that’s a tribute.The one difference was that since his recovery from a fallow period in 2007, Tendulkar had enough years for one to soak up that fuzzy re-run feeling. Kohli’s immediate past, with a long shallow period primarily in Tests, has led to an artificial feeling of fretfulness about his game in general – and luckily Sunday evening helped peel off that layer and gawk at his champion ODI game.Not many are intimate with this format’s soul as him; its ebbs and flows, its hinge-moments that turn a game, the demands of the middle-overs that lures a certain street-smart persona like him who knows how to flow along, to tick along without any unnecessary dopamine-fuelled detours. Kohli knows when to impose himself, when to retreat into the shadows.There was a moment there in the Pakistan game that made one wonder how Test batsman Kohli would have reacted. The impetuous spinner Abrar Ahmed had stopped a Kohli punch off his own bowling, and threw the ball toward the head of Kohli, who ducked and let the ball sail through to its intended destination of Muhammad Rizwan’s wicketkeeping gloves. The Test Kohli might have glared or stirred himself up; the ODI Kohli just shrugged it off by playing an imaginary defensive shot. Abrar had taken a step forward, looking for a stare or any reaction, but Kohli had punctured him with his non-reaction. India’s Virat Kohli celebrates after beating Pakistan during the ICC Champions Trophy cricket match between India and Pakistan at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, United Arab Emirates. (AP)Of course, a known protagonist with whom he has a past might have stirred something in him. But in general, the ODIs almost calm down Kohli – sort of. Perhaps, there are no self-doubts, no apprehensions about success, no urge to work his aggressive persona. The ODI middle-overs are his serene home after all, especially during a chase.If there is still an area – not of concern necessarily – but a phase to watch him closely it’s against the new ball in Powerplay. And this is probably because of the fresh memories of his Test struggles. When the ball is hurled outside off, we peer into his movements – of the body and of the mind. He was extremely assured against Pakistan, cracking a couple of cover drives that were instagrammed to perfection, but one wonders if that feeling will last till the end of this tournament against better teams like New Zealand and South Africa, Australia who are bound to attack with more purpose and cricketing intelligence than the Pakistanis.Story continues below this adThe Powerplay is the only period where Kohli makes us feel that he is extending himself – a chasing cover drive, a fetching swat-flick, and the odd sashays down the pitch. The same shots deployed during the middle-overs come across as reactions to demands of the ball; there is something akin to a feeling of risk against the new ball.“It is a catch 22 [situation]. It has been my kind of weakness as well over the years but I have scored a lot of runs off that shot,” Kohli said on BCCI.Tv. “I think today was just about backing my shots. I think the first couple of boundaries I got were cover drives on the rise so I really had to let it go a little bit, take a risk and follow through with my shots.” India’s Virat Kohli plays a shot during the ICC Champions Trophy cricket match between India and Pakistan at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, United Arab Emirates. (AP)For the rest of the game, he can almost set himself on auto-pilot – that feeling of re-run. “One thing that I always thought of batting at no.3 is minimise the risk and make sure I put my team in a winning position. If you have a chance to finish off the game in a run chase, then it is much better. I always prefer that kind of a situation. My role over the years has remained the same. Whatever the demands of the game, I put my head down and do that.”No one does that minimising risk better than him. No one, resultantly, has had such success in ODIs as him. No one else can make Ricky Ponting’s statement about Kohli being the best ODI batsman he has ever watched seem like a statement of fact. Else, such comments usually bring out murmurs from former players about how different eras can’t be compared and all that piffle. No such out-of-tune critical note escapes from anyone about Kohli and his place in ODI history.Story continues below this adNo one else has made ODI batting – even in the context of the modern-day version where T20 batting has had an undeniable effect in the nature of batting – feel like a rerun. To make it look ‘boring’ almost – and that’s the greatest accomplishment of Virat Kohli the ODI batsman.© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd