Virat Kohli could not be penalised a penny if he, like a pompous Victorian hero, had turned to Himanshu Sangwan with disdain and ordered: “The crowd has come to watch me bat, not to see you bowl.”

It was indeed supposed to be a Kohli show. The Pied Piper with the bat lured thousands to throng the Arun Jaitley Stadium at the Kotla in Delhi to watch him perform. They came from all walks of life, bunking schools and offices and businesses, to watch their demigod transcend the realms of reality — or off-form — and gift
them an orgasmic experience, the kind that cricket usually offers to its worshippers in this subcontinent.

So Railways pacer Sangwan, a senior ticket collector at the Old Delhi railway station, perhaps had no business sending Kohli’s off-stump cartwheeling towards the first slip when the former India captain was just 15 balls and 6 runs old at the crease on Friday morning in the Ranji Trophy game at the Kotla. But sadly, that’s how it was, the surreal balloon of expectations burst open by a good-length delivery that jagged in after landing just outside the off-stump.

Was it a good ball? Yes. Was it good enough to make Kohli look amateurish? Debatable.

He had despatched the previous ball for a boundary down the ground. It was still the first session, the ball was playing tricks. Delhi, as a team, were in no emergency having crossed 80 for the loss of two wickets. But Kohli, it seemed, had decided to show the Railways bowlers whom they were bowling to. One felt a certain disdain in the manner he went for the expansive drive, caring two hoots about the length or the bowler’s ability to move the ball. As a result, there opened a gap between his bat and pad for which he perhaps needed a gatekeeper.

Watching a man with more than 27,000 international runs and 81 centuries be that messy with the bat is quite difficult. And it’s not about one stray dismissal that we are dealing with, the 36-year-old’s recent failure in Australia in the Border-Gavasakar Trophy is still fresh in the mind. It’s the sum total of his struggles that’s perplexing given the stature that Kohli commands.

Kohli’s technique, the flaws in it to be precise, has been dissected a lot for his series of goof-ups in the outside-the-off-stump channel Down Under. Maybe there are things he needs to address, the experts would know better. But then he is Virat Kohli, he hasn’t built his empire with a magic wand, it’s all about hard work, unmatched dedication and an infectious positive approach. And he definitely knows a thing or two about batting.

That then nudges us to think if Kohli is messing it up in his mind. He always came across as a very sorted batter, one who knew exactly what to do to each ball, one who could masterfully pace his innings during complicated chases, one who could read the bowler. Did Kohli err in reading Sangwan correctly on Friday? Did he even attempt to judge the delivery before committing his shot? We don’t know, but Kohli certainly does and if there’s something to be done, he must do it, for there are few things as enjoyable in modern cricket as watching Kohli bat.

Kohli has had previous experience of fighting the battle in his mind space when things have gone south. Remember the tour of England in 2014? He got just 134 runs in 10 innings and was shrouded in self-doubt. But the champion that he is, he emerged stronger from that pit. Can’t he muster enough confidence to do that once more, so that we can watch him waltz into the sunset like a true ‘King’?

Delhi reached 334/7 in reply to Railways’ 241. Two more days of play are still left. Will Kohli get to bat in the second innings? Will he have by then found the key to unlock his form? We don’t know. What we know is if he does, the stands will again get filled up in anticipation. He is the WG Grace of modern cricket.