Champions Trophy 2025
In Bingo parlance, 76 is referred to as trombone, which literally means ‘large trumpet’ – tromba is Italian for trumpet. ‘Large trumpet’ sits nicely on two of the greatest white-ball players. Not just of their generation, not just of their country, but of all time. Period.
Seventy-six is the new magic number in international white-ball cricket for India. That’s the number of runs
Virat Kohli scored in the final of the T20 World Cup in Bridgetown last June, which translated to a seven-run conquest of South Africa and the Player of the Final award. That same honour was conferred last Sunday on Rohit Sharma for making the same quantum of runs during India’s four-wicket defeat of New Zealand in the final of the Champions Trophy. These two giants don’t blow their own trumpet, but any which way you look at it, they truly are ‘large trumpets’.
As part of the festivities after India whipped up a desert storm of their own making in Dubai, the current skipper and his illustrious predecessor plucked out stumps as souvenirs and broke into an impromptu dandiya jig, their joy infectious, their delight providing a glimpse of exactly how much this title triumph meant.
Neither individually, nor even put together, the T20 World Cup and the Champions Trophy titles will erase the bitter aftertaste of defeat to Australia in the final of the 50-over World Cup a year and a half back. But they most certainly will help soften the blow. That the two most senior and accomplished batters in the side took it upon themselves to deliver on the biggest stage of each tournament testifies to their inner steel and single-minded determination that neither a monumental volume of runs nor the passage of time has diluted one bit.
As they slumped into each other’s arms after their stump dance, you could see that the affection was genuine, the regard for each other total and organic.
Rohit and Kohli may not be the best mates – they don’t have to be, truth to tell – but they are good friends with a solid, strong, unshakable working relationship. There is tremendous respect for one another’s ability and acumen. On their own, each is a titan. Together, they form a partnership for the ages even if, in recent times, they haven’t had as many partnerships with the bat as they or their fans would have loved.
Senior statesmen
Rohit and Kohli weren’t always on the same page a few years back, but all that has passed into history. Today, they are revelling in their roles as elder statespersons, inspiring with their words and deeds, passing on their wisdom and motivating their colleagues to play to their best potential, if not above themselves. It’s a role that comes naturally to both, a role they relish and enjoy because they too were the recipients of such attention and focus from their senior and established colleagues when they first broke into the Indian team.
Rohit’s international foray was some 14 months before Kohli’s, when Rahul Dravid was the captain. At the time, in June 2007, few would have imagined that a decade and a half later, the stylist from Mumbai and the technician from Bengaluru would come together to form a splendid captain-coach alliance that would revolutionise India’s approach to white-ball cricket. It was under this leadership group that India entertained and exhilarated on their way to the 50-over World Cup final and to the T20 World Cup crown. The thrilling brand of play the current T20 side is espousing is a mere extension of the seeds sowed under Rohit and
Dravid. India’s 20-over future is in exceptionally safe hands, of that there is little doubt.
Kohli joined Rohit on the world stage in August 2008 and made his Test debut two and a half years before the Mumbaikar, largely because Rohit picked up an ankle injury on the morning of his scheduled debut, in Nagpur against South Africa in February 2010. Their careers have therefore run parallel for the longest of times. Initially, in limited-overs internationals but since October 2019, in Test cricket too.
Kohli’s part in Rohit’s rejuvenation as a Test batter has perhaps not received as much appreciation as it deserves, because it was in his elevation as opener that he found his true calling, just as he had in white-ball play when Mahendra Singh Dhoni thrust him up the order in January 2013.
Prolific pair
It was after Rohit started to open that he and Kohli, at No. 3, formed one of the most prolific pairs in One-Day Internationals. As on date, they are sixth on the list of most runs scored by a partnership, a list headed by the peerless duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. With 8,827 runs, the two former captains are more than 2000 runs ahead of the next best pair (Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara), but even though Rohit and Kohli haven’t batted a lot together in the last few years and even though they haven’t pieced together as many runs as in the past, their average is comfortably the highest among the top 15 ODI alliances ever.
Without being sucked into the comparison game, here’s a recall. Tendulkar and Ganguly averaged 47.55, with 26 hundred stands and a further 29 scores between 50 and 99 in 176 innings, most of them opening the batting. Rohit and Kohli haven’t batted in tandem as many times, but in 99 innings, they average 56.54, bolstered by 18 partnerships of more than 100 and 17 other half-century associations.
Rohit and Kohli cut contrasting figures at the batting crease. The former is a consummate six-hitter – he is only second by seven to Shahid Afridi’s record of 351 – while the latter’s game is based around the sharp singles and hard-run twos, though only Tendulkar (2,016) has hit more fours than Kohli’s 1,325. One of the great non-secrets of a successful batting pair is the ability to understand each other’s strengths but also allow for weaknesses.
Rohit is a good runner between the wickets but not in the same league as Kohli, who has perfected the tip-and-run routine. Whenever the two have batted in tandem, Kohli has run at Rohit’s pace without putting his partner under undue pressure, admirable for someone as industrious and energetic as the former captain.
Rohit’s five centuries played a massive part in India’s entry into the semifinal of the 2019 World Cup in England. No one batter had scored these many tons in a single edition but Rohit has maintained that those hundreds brought him no joy because it didn’t help India progress beyond the semifinals. Indeed, as recently as last Sunday, he again reflected on that painful reality when he spoke of the satisfaction of contributing to winning causes.
“I contributed a lot in the 2019 World Cup, but we didn’t win. So, it wasn’t fun,” he said after his heroics in the final, with the Champions Trophy nestled to his right. “Even if you score 30 or 40 runs and win the match, you get more satisfaction and happiness. It was very important for me to do something and contribute and bring the team to a position where there is a little comfort for the rest of the batting order.”
Kohli must have entertained similar emotions four years later, after India’s shattering loss to the Aussies in the final. He had bossed the tournament all the way through, stacking up a staggering 765 runs at a stunning average of 95.62 and a terrific strike-rate of 90.31; the World Cup’s leading scorer was also the Player of the Tournament, but it had a hollow ring to it because of what unravelled at the Narendra Modi Stadium that Sunday night. To have therefore made a telling contribution in the T20 World Cup final seven months later must have been especially fulfilling for someone who takes the greatest pride in weighing in for the unit.
Rohit and Kohli are at that stage of their careers where they are not fussed by milestones and individual achievements. The latter has more ODI hundreds (51) than anyone else and it is unlikely, maybe impossible even, that his mark will be erased. Rohit is third on the list of century-makers with 32, the modern-day giants sandwiching the titan of titans, Tendulkar (51). Kohli recently became the third batter, and the fastest, to 14,000 runs while Rohit brought up 11,000 runs, also at the Champions Trophy. Every run from here on is a bonus from an individual standpoint because it is for the common cause that their thoughts are aligned and in sync.
It speaks to Rohit’s distinct lack of insecurity that he allows Kohli to move fields and emboldens his predecessor to charge up to him with ideas on field placements, bowling changes and the rest. It is to Kohli’s great credit that, stripped of the ODI captaincy even though he had no intention of abdicating that throne towards the end of 2021, he is willing and able to help his successor out in whatever way possible. To be able to feed off the sagacity of these two virtuosos is a great place to be in for the other players, no slouches but certainly not anywhere near the Rohit-Kohli league.
Indian cricket must count itself fortunate to have the services of these two legends run concurrently for so long; they may not have many miles left in their tired but willing legs, so it is imperative that the others continue to want to learn and improve so that they can carry forward the everlasting legacy that the RoKo portmanteau has established. RoKo? Stop them if you can.
Published – March 13, 2025 11:31 pm IST