Virat Kohli put on a show with the bat, albeit in a losing cause, during the third ODI between India and New Zealand at Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore on Sunday (January 18).

Asked to bat first, the Kiwis recovered from a shaky start to post a formidable 337/8 on the board, thanks to centuries from Daryl Mitchell (137 off 131) and Glenn Phillips (106 off 88).

In reply, India lost Rohit Sharma (11), Shubman Gill (23), Shreyas Iyer (3) and KL Rahul (1) cheaply and slumped to 71/4. However, Kohli waged a lone battle and found some support from all-rounders Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana.

Virat added 88 runs for the fifth wicket with Reddy (53 off 57), and followed it up with a 99-run stand for the seventh wicket with Rana (52 off 43) to keep India in the hunt. In the process, the star batter slammed his record-extending 54th ODI century.

Kohli tried his best drag India past the winning line, but eventually perished for 124 (108 balls) while playing a lofted drive against Kristian Clarke. His wicket was final nail in the coffin as India’s innings folded for 296 in 46 overs, handing New Zealand their maiden ODI series win on Indian soil.

After India’s defeat in the series-decider, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar weighed in on Virat Kohli’s success, saying that the talisman is ‘not tied down to an image.’

“The thing about him is that he’s not tied down to an image.. A lot of batters, a lot of bowlers are tied down to an image. That this is the way, you know, they are perceived, and so they should stick to that. I don’t think he is tied down to an image. He’s tied down to the job at hand. The job at hand is to score runs, maybe watchfully to start with, and then open out, or score bang-bang at the start and then spread the field and then look for the ones and twos. He’s not tied down by any image, and that is the reason he is consistent,” Gavaskar said on JioHotstar.

“Apart from his talent, of course, and temperament. And when I said not tied down by image, I talk about the temperament. Temperament not to say, “Oh, I’m expected to hit the six.” It’s not that. He will watch it and do it, and he never gives up. He refuses to give up,” Gavaskar added.

“So even till the end, he was trying that a little tired shot. Sometimes you know the gloves can get a bit sweaty, and so the grip on the handle would have gone a little bit awry. And that’s why, instead of going straight, the bad face turned up and he was caught inside the boundary. For me, this is the important thing to learn for any for any youngster, not to live up to an image, play the situation, and you will be more consistent than ever hoped for,” he further remarked.

Former New Zealand cricketer-turned-commentator Simon Doull expressed his awe for a couple of Kohli’s shots in a knock that was studded with 10 fours and three sixes.

“New Zealand would have been nervous the whole time that he was there. He was the guy who could take the game away from them. and it looked like he was going to for a long period of it. It was a brilliant innings. He came in relatively early. He lost five different partners along the way before that partnership with Harshit Rana. I thought it was a good partnership with Harshit as well. But just some of the crisp clean hitting… the first boundary, I remember was the six, the pull shot. The crack off the bat was phenomenal. And the other one that I’ll bring up, I thought was the one just skimmed over extra cover’s head, maybe one bounce, I think, for four. Those are the signature Virat Kohli shot. But outside of that, how he manoeuvres the field, how he runs between the wickets,” Doull stated.

Doull also expressed his admiration for Kohli’s fitness. “There is just an air of youth about this guy despite his age and his experience. He would still be the fittest in that side, I would imagine. And that is professionalism. That is what it is all about to me. The ability to still try and win games to put your team in the contest when they’re so far behind, and the willingness to play that type of innings and run as hard as you do for your runs and for your mates’ runs. as well. There’s so much to love about how he’s playing at the moment and oh, may he stick around till he’s 44, 45."