There is a famous portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger, painted as part of the Whitehall mural in the mid-1530s. At the time of its creation, the Tudor royal was in his forties and already struggling with some health problems that would disrupt his later years, while overcoming serious injuries suffered in a jousting accident at Greenwich Palace.
Yet Holbein paints the portrait of a potentate in the prime of his life. Henry stands tall and wide, legs spread in a powerful pose, showing no signs of physical decline. It is an element of propaganda that endured even after the mural’s destruction in 1698, with large numbers of copies and cartoons shaping perceptions of the ruler through the centuries.
Perhaps India’s aging monarch needs such a flattering portrayal. Virat Kohli begins this week’s series against Australia as a faded force; a king who once ruled with bravado and brilliance, now seemingly in terminal decline. Statistically, the numbers are grim: since the start of 2020, Kohli has an average of 31.68 in Test cricket. Although glimpses of his genius are still visible in white-ball cricket, this is not a dip, an incident or a loss of form, but a kind of sustained slide that is rarely reversed.
His past body of work has allowed Kohli to avoid more serious questions about his place in the team, but with one of cricket’s biggest series about to begin, a perhaps overdue narrative is starting to stir. “He has only scored two Test hundreds in the last five years,” former Australia captain Ricky Ponting told the website. ICC Review podcast as the two teams prepare to contest the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. “It’s a concern. There would probably be no one else playing international cricket as a top-order batsman who has scored just two hundreds in Test matches in five years.
While there is a certain sadness in a character who once had complete control over territory no longer able to fully utilize his batting abilities, factors beyond his control also played a role. During their golden era, India largely played friendly, flat decks at home, with the hosts able to rely on the runs-scoring voracity of their batting line-up and two world-class spinners, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, to win the test matches. Lately, the strategy has changed. In general, result pitches which offered turning or seam movement early on in Test matches were favored, with deterioration of surfaces proving problematic for both home and visiting batters.
If the extension of India’s unbeaten home series to 12 years suggested the new formula was working, last month their reward arrived. While India’s batting was down, a New Zealand team that was missing its own excellent hitter in Kane Williamson and possessed a vastly inferior spin attack nonetheless dominated. The Blackcaps’ first Test victory in India since 1988 was followed by two more; India had been whitewashed with Kohli contributing four single-digit scores in six innings.
It was a defeat that put pressure on an Indian team who should have gone to Australia with real confidence. They have, of course, won on their last two trips to the country, the historic exploits of a Kohli-led side in 2018/19, followed by a near second-tier team that achieved a most remarkable series victory in Brisbane in January. 2021.
But the nature of their defeats against New Zealand means that uncomfortable, even unacceptable, questions are starting to be asked. It’s not just Kohli in the spotlight, but also Ashwin and Jadeja, as well as captain Rohit Sharma, who will miss the opening Test in Perth after the recent arrival of his second child.
“I have no concerns about Virat and Rohit,” Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir replied dismissively in October when asked about the future of the two men. “I think they are incredibly tough men.
“They have achieved a lot for Indian cricket, and they will continue to achieve a lot in the future as well. I think for me the most important thing is that they are still working very hard, they are still passionate, they still want to achieve much more and that is something very important. The hunger in this locker room is extremely important for me and for the whole group as well. I feel like there’s a lot of hunger, especially after what happened last series.”
Sharma’s absence and an untimely thumb injury to Shubman Gill will necessitate a top-notch overhaul for India at the fast and firm Optus Stadium, a venue where the hosts are yet to lose. All-rounder KL Rahul is likely to return to open alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal, while lanky southpaw Devdutt Padikkal has apparently been deemed better equipped to handle pace and bounce than the uncapped Abhimanyu Easwaran. In such circumstances, Kohli – who averages 54 in Australia – returning to his past glories would be welcome.
India’s uproar has instead made it easier to examine lingering questions and alternative answers in Australia’s batting line-up. Steve Smith’s ambitious leap up the order following David Warner’s retirement appears to have been abandoned for good, with Cameron Green’s back surgery allowing Smith to return to his favored number four spot. The selfless and vigilant Nathan McSweeney is relatively unproven as a flyhalf, but is highly regarded as a leader, and showed just enough in a recent Australia A match against the tourists to win the confidence of the selectors as a partner of Usman Khawaja.
If Jasprit Bumrah – who will replace Sharma as India skipper – and the rest of the visiting attack will give McSweeney’s technique and ticker a serious look, a pre-Test session at the net on a spicy Perth surface against Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc served as perfect preparation for the 25-year-old.
“It was a good challenge. I came out of it unscathed,” McSweeney said earlier this week. “I didn’t put a lot of pressure on them, but they played very well and prepared very well to face these guys who are quality bowlers.
“I think everyone will have their opinion [about my selection]. I try not to read too much into it. I think for me I know what works and I feel very capable [of going] And [doing] the work. I feel like I’m hitting the best ever. Hopefully I can go out there and execute this on Friday.
Australia vs India begins November 22 on TNT Sports and Discovery+ at 2:15 a.m.