The Kohli Era

It gave Test cricket one of its greatest Test teams ever.

In the Kohli Era (2014/15 to 2021/22), India had its first truly great Test team. It was one of the most successful Test teams in the history of the game. India won 44 out of 76 Tests over these 15 seasons, won 21 out of 26 series, won 7 and lost 6 out of 14 series outside India (2 of the 7 series they failed to win were one-off Tests - a rain affected draw in Bangladesh in 2015, and the loss in the World Test Championship Final in England in 2021), and won 12 out of 12 series at home. South Africa and New Zealand proved to be beyond this Indian side, but all other opposition was conquered at their place, and all comers were demolished when they visited India.

In the Kohli era, India answered the basic competitive question in Test cricket - How do we take 20 wickets? - better than they had ever done before, and better than all but a few teams in the 145 year history of Test cricket.

They did it sacrificing a batting place in favor of a bowling place. This was the era of playing five bowlers, five batters and a wicket keeper, rather than six batters and four bowlers.

44 players won India Test caps in this great era. Five different bowlers managed at least a 100 Test wickets. Two of them will almost definitely finish their careers are all time greats in the history of the game. The other three will count among India’s finest at the very least. Exclude these five bowlers and consider the bowlers you still get to chose from to build your attack - Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Amit Mishra and Axar Patel. The latter three would make up a formidable spin trio in India. The former three, a pace trio which Kohli predecessors would have gladly taken instead of the bowlers they had.

Hardik Pandya’s Test prospects have sadly been blighted by injuries. But in Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin, India have had not just two of the greatest spinners of all time, but two of the greatest Test all rounders of all time.

On the batting side of things, consider the openers India have been able to field during this period - KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma - all Test quality players who would average 40 over long careers in more batting friendly periods.

The consequence is that the Indian batting has been as strong as ever, to go with one of the strongest bowling attacks in history, as the figures below show. The figures give the average totals (per 10 wickets) scored and conceded by each Test team over 10 year spans, followed by a ratio of runs scored to runs conceded. The most recent span covers the Kohli era.

Some of the reaction to this record betrays bewilderment. There is a view in India that India have been winning because the opposition has been weak. For three generations of Indian fans whose grandparents remember Ajit Wadekar’s India briefly lording it over the (much smaller) Test match world in the early 1970s, and whose parents remember the mid-table miseries of the 1980s and 1990s, and who themselves remember the fat averages of the 2000s which never seemed to push India above 4th in the rankings, seeing Test cricket from the top table has been disorienting. Mid-table eyes expect to see opponents as they appear from the mid-table - every opponent is competitive, and a few are intimidating. From the top of the table, the view is different. It takes getting used to.

What is striking about this period of Indian dominance is that it has come in an era where Australia have arguably their finest, deepest attack ever, as do New Zealand. South Africa have had Steyn, Morkel, Philander, Rabada, Ngidi, Abbot, Jansen, Olivier and Nortje during this period. England have had Broad, Anderson and an army of seam bowlers making them difficult to beat in England. The world of Test cricket has been flattened beyond recognition. In the current era a tour to England, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, India and West Indies, all mean facing at least two (and typically three or four) top class bowlers. Draws - Tests in which both teams are defeated by the conditions - are rarer than ever before.

Apart from the fact that Kohli has been captain of India during this great period, what is it that he actually did (apart from batting)? You’ll hear a lot of guff about “leadership”, which I don’t understand. I know nothing about Kohli’s personality. And I don’t know how personality shapes Test cricket. Neither does anybody else, for what its worth. It is a folly to paint definitive character sketches of complete strangers based on watching them in Test cricket and reading their press interviews.

But there is a cricketing point. All Test teams want to have a plausible plan to take 20 wickets. The brutal truth is that most teams don’t have the bowlers to achieve this. And so most teams, sooner rather than later, start compromising. They play four bowlers, one of whom is picked for his batting rather than his wicket taking ability. They pick wicketkeepers for their batting. Packing the batting is the surest sign that a team is pursuing respectability rather than competitiveness. It is to Kohli’s great credit that he resisted this urge, even when India were losing in 2018 in South Africa and then in England. The temptation to compromise the pursuit of 20 wickets by playing the extra batter must have been significant. We have seen other teams fall prey to this pursuit. Just look at England in these Ashes. The quality of the bowling options - pace and spin - which have been cultivated as a consequence make India sustainably competitive.

This way of thinking about Test cricket is alien to Indian observers of the game who covet the respectability of 350 all out far more than they recognize the hopelessness of conceding 400 because the 3rd, 4th and 5th bowlers are not really serious wicket taking options because at least two of them have been picked for their batting.

The fact that India have won more Tests in the last 2 years of the Kohli era with an out of form middle order and three genuine number elevens than they did with line ups filled to the brim with runs ought to make us reconsider what a good Test team is. (I doubt that most of us will). The Kohli era has provided the evidence. That is perhaps its most profound contribution after the actual results.

Kohli’s resignation from the captaincy is a milestone. Will India keep winning? As long as they have the bowling, they will. Will they always have the bowling? Almost certainly not. Great bowlers don’t grow on trees.